#REALLY NEED THE MENTAL HOSPITAL ARC THAT WAS MY FAVORITE ONE

[midwesternvibes]

Time for more Seperated Leo Human AU! (I really need a name good lord-)

As promised, we now get to look into Leon's lore! He's a funky little guy, and shockingly well adjusted!

Lore drop under the cut!

His full name is Leonardo Tomás Esposito, and he is quite proud of it! He picked it out himself when he was about 10 years old, and he's happy to say that he still loves it to this day! (Fun fact: all of the names have double meanings to them hehe)

But anyways, his Mamà is in fact, NOT Big Mama (but it was a solid guess!), her name is actually Mia Esposito! (+10 Fandom points to anyone who can guess her full first name) She is a full time nurse and used to travel around the several NYC hospitals as an on-call nurse, but once Leon was born she stuck her roots down to one and has been there ever since!

She's actually an incredibly interesting character (with her very own arc!) with a lot of depth and meaning. She grew up with her Puerto Rican mother and Italian father, but after a series of misfortunes and despair, she ended up immigrating to NYC to start a new life for herself. About 10 years later she began raising a baby all on her own as a single immigrant mother in New York City (Sound familiar?). Whenever Leon asks about his father she tells him that she doesn't remember his Papá, only that he had the same almond-shaped brown eyes as her baby boy....

But ultimately she doesn't remember him hahaha maybe Leon should stop asking questions and get back to studying!

(Leon knows that she's hiding something, but ultimately he doesn't care about his father that much, he just assumes that he did something to hurt his Mamá and wants nothing to do with the man at all)

Leon and his Mamá are very close, they're very similar to Percy and Sally Jackson from the PJO series, and they would definitely fight God for each other.

Leon was raised very much with the mentality of "It takes a village" and has many aunts and uncles and relatives in the hospital staff that he considers family. Mia couldn't really afford childcare as Leon grew up, as it often came down to food or rent for the month. The hospital staff saw this and absolutely adored little baby Esposito, so they were more than happy to raise him alongside their own children. Mia owes her life to this staff and considers them her family through and through.

As he grew up, Leon saw all his favorite people as nurses and doctors and considered each and every one of them heros. He decided very early on that he wanted to be a doctor when he grew up, and after a terrible injury when he was 14 it cemented the fact that he wanted to be a pediatric surgeon, to help kids just like him.

But the issue is, Leon and Mia definitely do not have enough to cover medical school for Leon on a single nurse's income, even with all the jobs that Mia and Leon have taken over the years. That's why Leon NEEDS the athletic and valedictorian scholarship, without it he won't be able to achieve his dream. The only thing standing in his way is.....

THE HAMATOS

(Except Michael, he's a gift)

Leon is willing to do ANYTHING to get those scholarships, but his Mamá always reminds him that the Hamatos might need it just as badly as he does, and that's about all that's keeping him from REALLY doing anything to hurt/sabotage them. His Mamá has instilled a really strict moral code into his psyche and he won't actually do anything to them, he just....really wants to give his Mamá a better life, one she deserves.

Although, he is kinda curious as to why the Hamato brothers have the same eyes as him......

First // Previous // Next

Whew! That was pretty much just a really intense ramble, sorry there was no actual structure to that, I just really wanted to talk about my Leon lore! Props to anyone who figures out the significance of all the names, and to clear up any confusion, Mia is Half Puerto Rican, half Italian, and Leon is 1/4 Puerto Rican, 1/4 Italian, and 1/2 Japanese (but shhh he doesn't know that yet) and obviously he's got that amazing vitiligo (shout out to anyone and everyone with vitiligo, y'all are amazing and beautiful)

Thanks for reading my lore dump, see ya next time for..... huh idk yet, vote ig

See ya next time!

[dangakkisland]

Speaking of Nekomaru and Nagito, I really like the scene at the end of the Hope Arc in DR3 where Nagito talks to Makoto at length, and Nekomaru (and Akane) lift him up and carry him to their battleship. Since Nekomaru was the one who beat Nagito after the first trial in the school trip and left him unconscious, tied up and abandoned in the old lodge, I'm sure he didn't want to get involved with Nagito at that time, but the scene in the Hope Arc gives me the feeling that Nekomaru has accepted Nagito as his comrade and he thinks he should take care of Nagito himself. Also, Nagito shows no resistance when he is lifted up, so it feels like he trusts Nekomaru and Akane. It's a very short scene, but I think it shows that their relationship has changed, so I really like it. (Sorry, this isn't a question or anything, but since you said you like seeing them get along, I wanted to tell you that I'm also thinking about their relationship. I want to draw them one day!)

[You don't need to say sorry, as you can see I put my all into this, it was really fun I love asks like that! I love investigating my opinion with certain characters ❤️]

That was one of the reasons I liked the ending (mostly) of the Hope arc, they show interesting dynamics (even if it only shows in one scene for 1/30 of them). Actually, I was really interested in them, especially in chapter 3, I really hoped Nekomaru 'survived' the fight maybe he could sympathize with Nagito when they got despair disease...And everyone too; Akane would be an interesting one for him to see for sure!

(Since they both have illnesses that can kill them if they aren't careful enough and I am holding myself in a thin middle of Nagito never or rarely lies since when he got a despair disease and he became the liar type, he might have all those things he says...And he just over-dramatized some mental and physical disorder he has but that's a tangent I won't allow myself into)

They might have bonded in Hope's Peak/Despair arc for the same reasons and guarantee he speaks to everyone because a team with members who don't support each other isn't a team but a bunch of strangers, some members just need a push-in in the right direction. It was truly a shame everything happened so fast that we couldn't work out a way to show the dynamics when Nagito was in a calm and controlled environment before he exploded the gym plus ruined all the relationships he could have had at Hope's Peak Academy

That happens to Nekomaru too, I wished there was some extra content...He has a straightforward but complete story on why he is this way; It compels me more that he isn't harsh in his own right, more of a '''protective type''' but more allowed to be part of the group. It happens when you are in a hospital a lot you get protective of those around you clinging onto them when you feel like it got worse however it also makes you ''carefree'' in a sense when it is a chronic disorder you discover and you learn to have fun with it even with its limitations.

And Nekomaru's hospital buddy! I love him! I don't even know how he looks like! He sounds sweet and fun! Sweet and fun people only can make sweet and fun people..The only exception is when you are stubborn!

And I can't help but wonder if Nagito would have been different if he had someone like that and he was still alive...And I entered a tangent again! It's so easy to fall into rabbit holes when I talk about my favorite characters and their friendship and bonding, I love them having a great time.

About the scene itself (Apologies).. I have the belief that Nagito holds extreme respect for Akane for surviving the mystery he put on in chapter 5, she didn't solve it herself but by all means, she managed to push through to the end of everything even if the tides were pointing against it, Nekomaru not only put him on the abandoned building but sacrificed himself so they could all escape and not die of starvation which was a true act selflessness I would be surprised if he didn't hold them into high regard at all!

Compared to the first section this was comically short

Summary: I love them! I wish there was more content for them, they connect nicely with each other! People don't dare analyze Nekomaru enough, I really like him, Akane is also cool and awesome and Nagito is a member of the team like anyone else (when he is not committing arson and attempts of murder, he knows he needs to be absolutely contained)

And it was supposed to be longer...They are sabotaging me!! I can't even put it back it was the longest one..Ough.

[an-au-blog]

One more ask about the East Blue Asylum AU! I saw you mentioned Germa 66 and that was something I thought about a lot as well! Whole Cake Island is my favorite arc, so please do talk about those Vinsmokes we all love and hate ^u^

Okay, well in my mind the Sora Warrior Of The Sea are fiction. They're like Batman or Superman but ig maybe more of a magical girl version of the power rangers???

I wanna say that WCI has to be one of my fav arcs as well I live it to bits! And that's one of the reasons I honestly don't know how to do it lol

I have a little post in my drafts about Zou but WCI I haven't really made up my mind. The two posts are kinda intertwined so I'll tey to post it right after this answer.

I did try to shower-think it and I came up with a few ideas but idk if I like them enough':)

At some point, Judge had started getting bad press for having a son he abandoned and is now in a mental hospital. He didn't know how the word got out, but it did and he decided that he'd get him out and treat him in some private place but it was very obvious that he didn't want to go and since he was a legal adult, he could decide for himself. (Even if he wanted to leave, the doctors were the only ones who could dismiss him after he signed himself in.)

About his brothers - They look a lot like the heroes from the Germa comics and act just as uptight and heartless as them. Subconsciously, Luffy must have mistaken them for "The Warriors Of The Sea". But in reality they're just brats who used to bully their brother - mean little kids who grew up to be even worse adults. Sanji's sister, however, I imagine has visited before, only this time she wasn't dressed like she was in hiding. The Vinsmoke family (in my head) is a bit like the Rockefellers - everyone knows who they are and it's hard to drop their name in a casual conversation and not get some kind of reaction.

In regards to his past - Sanji still got abused and beaten up by both his father and brothers. But instead of being a failed experiment, he was just a nice little boy who didn't like sports and competing in things, he just liked stereotypically girly things like butterflies flowers, cooking, and pretty things. His father didn't like that, as he believed that all his dons should be manly men who won chess tournaments, so soccer games, basketball matches or martial arts competitions. If they weren't the strongest, smartest, most handsome men in their circle, then they were no sons of his. And Sanji didn't meet that criteria. He didn't care for sports or competing, he just wanted to have fun and to have friends. Don't get me wrong, he was still smart. But wanting to be a cook is not exactly a good look if all of your family is just CEOs and multimillionaire company holders. Or at least in Judge's eyes. So when Sanji ran away at 12 (I'm making him older to make it more realistic), Judge just closed his eyes and reported him missing in the wrong region so he couldn't be found and so the investigation could declare him dead after the appropriate amount of years.

The golden bracelets were real, but they weren't exploding, Judge just used them to yank Sanji when he got mad at him and threaten him. "I'll cut them off till wherever they reach!" he'd say, so Sanji would wish to be skinnier so if they slip off, then maybe he wouldn't cut his hands off? That was his child logic at least. That's how his questionable relationship with food started, but later on he'd just starve himself to feel like he still has control over something in his life. Anything. That or as a punishment to himself, more than often he wouldn't believe he deserved food or he'd think that there are people with bigger needs than him. So he'd lose appetite and maybe feel sick enough to throw up. (Him having bulimia is one of the many reasons why hates himself and thinks he doesn't deserve food, because why eat if he'd just throw it up?(Zoro hates that he thinks that way btw and he tries feeding him every once in a while because he'd notice that Sanji could scarcely say no to him. Plus he likes taking care of him))

[thecleverqueer]

I’ve written this for three reasons:

1.) Ahsoka would rather be with Barriss than her brother. So… I’m obliging her…

2.) I need some sort of explanation to Barriss’s batshit story arc.

3.) F*^% Lux Bonteri, always. Seriously, that guy is a monumental douchebag that Ahsoka would have never (because look at her, she’s clearly a badass lesbian). So, here, enjoy:

Barriss received an urgent call from Luminara requesting her presence, and was instructed to meet her in her quarters immediately upon returning home from a long and difficult deployment. Barriss had been away for a month and a half running a small field hospital this time. The fighting had been particularly brutal, and they’d lost a little over half of their platoon to the violence. She’d tried desperately to save the men, and sometimes she did, only for them to die a few days or weeks later. She was exhausted. She hadn’t slept a full night in over two weeks. All she really wanted to do was find Ahsoka to come cuddle with her in her dormitory as she knew Ahsoka’s presence would make her feel safe enough that she could actually get some rest, but duty called and Luminara’s message sounded as if it could not wait.

Upon exiting the airlock into the Jedi Temple Hangar, Barriss immediately noticed that Ahsoka wasn’t there. Barriss knew that they wouldn’t have much time before she had to meet with her master, but she’d hoped to spend a few minutes with Ahsoka before heading to Luminara’s quarters. Barriss longed for the warmth of Ahsoka’s embrace, a soft, gentle kiss. They would have had enough time to slip away to one of their dormitories for that if careful not to stumble into a make out session. That could wait until later. For now, it seemed, everything would have to wait. It made Barriss a little suspicious because they always greeted each other in the hangar after returning home from deployments. It was odd that Ahsoka was not there. It did not sit well with Barriss. Something wasn’t right.

Barriss slowly made her way down the corridors to Luminara’s quarters. She was still hoping to run into Ahsoka who was no where in sight. As Barriss walked, she realized that she was far more tired that she had initially thought. She also realized that she hadn’t eaten anything in nearly three days. The mental and physical fatigue that set in was almost more than she could bare. As she reached Luminara’s, she was forced to steady herself on the door frame of Luminara’s room so not to pass out. She rang the bell to come in.

Luminara answered quickly, “Barriss!” she exclaimed, “My dear padawan, please come in. I must speak with you.”

“I gathered, Master, what is it?” she said politely, but with little energy, so little that it alarmed Luminara.

“Are you alright, Barriss? You don’t look well. Come in! Come in! Sit,” Luminara patted one of the meditation cushions in the center of her living quarters. Barriss followed her in dutifully, then sat down on the cushion.

If Barriss was being honest, she would have told her that she wasn’t alright at all. The war was wearing her razor thin. Every time she was deployed, she felt a little more of herself die inside. With every man that she lost, so too did she lose a part of her soul. She wasn’t eating. She couldn’t sleep. She was barely holding on. The only thing that was keeping her even remotely put together was the thought of Ahsoka waiting for her in the temple, and even that was never assured. So, no, she wasn’t alright. “I’m fine, Master. Just… tired. This rotation was particularly challenging.”

Luminara handed her a small cup of tea, and small slice of Choya bread on a plate, “Here. Take this. You’ve lost weight, Padawan. I hope you haven’t been regretting to eat on the battlefield?”

Barriss took a few small bites from the slice of bread, and then took a sip of the tea. Luminara had brewed Barriss’s favorite. Still, she wasn’t excited about eating. She had a knot in her stomach, “I’ve missed a few rations. I’ll do better.”

“Make sure you do,” Luminara said. “But, I didn’t call you here to chastise you about eating. I brought you here because the council has requested that I speak with you.”

Barriss stopped chewing to inquire, “What about, Master?”

Luminara continued, “Well, I have no other way of bringing all of this up, so I won’t waste any time. What is the nature of the relationship between you and Ahsoka Tano?”

Barriss choked on the bread, “What!?”

“You and Ahsoka, Barriss. What’s going on? I told them that you two have been friends since the second battle of Geonosis, that you lived through something traumatic together and it made you bond closely. The council feels that there may be something more… serious… going on between the two of you.”

Shit.

Barriss couldn’t form any words. She tried desperately to stop her racing mind. She hoped that her master could not sense the state of utter panic that she was in. “I’m, um, not sure what you mean, master?”

“The council believes that the two of you may be romantically involved, Barriss. Jedi code strictly forbids that, and they wanted me to ask you first before they launch an internal investigation,” Luminara explained.

Barriss placed the bread back down onto the plate. How did this happen? She and Ahsoka had gone to great lengths to be careful, to keep it all a secret. Barriss felt as if she were about to be sick, “Master, I would never go against the code in such a way. I’m not sure why these allegations have been brought forth, but I assure you that they’re false.”

“I told the council that you are an ideal student, Barriss. I told them that I felt as though you would remain true to the code. Still, it would be best if you and Ahsoka be mindful of your thoughts and feelings,” Luminara warned.

“Of course, master,” Barriss nodded. She felt an overwhelming sense of dread, so much so that it made her a little dizzy. She was consumed by the need to find Ahsoka to see if they’d already confronted her with all of this as well. She wanted to see if what they had could be salvaged, or if they’d have to cut their losses and act as though they weren’t in love with one another. “I do appreciate your company, Master, but the deployment has depleted my energy. Would it be alright if I retired for the evening?”

“Surely, Padawan!” Luminara exclaimed, “Get some rest! It’s good to have you back with us in the temple. Enjoy the quiet while it lasts.”

Barriss chuckled a bit, then headed to her dormitory. When she arrived there, she slammed the door closed, fell to the floor and stared blankly at the wall. Part of her wanted to scream. Part of her wanted to sob uncontrollably. Part of her wanted to run. Part of her just wanted to die. She swore she would find Ahsoka as soon as she could without the possibility of prying eyes finding out.

=================================

It was well after dark when Barriss decided it would be safe enough to sneak out of her dormitory to make her way to Ahsoka’s. She knew foot traffic in the halls slowed significantly during the evening hours, and that temple guards would likely be outside as the anti-war protesters at the foot of the temple steps tended to get more rowdy at that time of night. Luckily, Barriss didn’t have too far to go. She rang the bell to come in, praying to the force that Ahsoka would be there and answer the door.

“Barriss!!” Ahsoka exclaimed.

“Can I come in? We need to talk….” Barriss said slowly, her words dripping with dread.

“We do.” Ahsoka said somberly. Ahsoka’s eyes shot up and down the hall to make sure that no one saw them, then she pulled Barriss in and shut the door.

Ahsoka wrapped her arms around Barriss and pulled her close. Ahsoka squeezed her gently and said, “I’ve missed you so much.” Ahsoka let go. She looked at Barriss. Her eyes were filled with an exorbitant amount of anguish.

“What happened?” Barriss asked as she grabbed one of Ahsoka’s hands, pulling Ahsoka along. She slowly sat down on Ahsoka’s bed. “How did they find out?”

Ahsoka sat down next to Barriss, her fingers still intertwined with Barriss’s. She began, “I don’t know. I’ve replayed every moment that we’ve been together in my mind, and I’ve come up empty.” She was silent for a moment, then continued very as-a-matter-of-factly, “Barriss, this is not good. Anakin said that this is technically grounds for being dispelled. He said he thought it was unfair and that he’d do all that he could, but he said it would be best if we….”

Ahsoka couldn’t bring herself to finish the sentence, but Barriss knew where this was going. She could feel her heart shatter into a million pieces. Her stomach flatlined. She felt as though her body were drowning itself. She could suddenly feel the weight of the entire Galaxy, and it became harder to breathe.

“Barriss, I, um….” Ahsoka said softly, her voice began to crack with emotion, tears formed in her eyes. Barriss couldn’t stand the thought of Ahsoka crying over this. She instinctively rested her free hand on Ahsoka’s knee and gently stroked it, “The council is sending me to Onderon to train a rebel cell there. They’re not sure how long it will take, or how long I’ll be gone…”

“A rebel cell?!” Barriss exclaimed. Her brow raised in outright disapproval, “A group of insurgents? Terrorists? Why?”

“They’re fighting a Separatist puppet government, Barriss,” Ahsoka explained, “what I’m doing doesn’t bother me… it’s… who I’m being forced to do it with…”

“Who?!” Barriss asked despite being afraid to.

“Lux,” Ahsoka said, shooting a desperate look at Barriss. Ahsoka’s teeth gritted together, then a feeling of uncertainty and melancholia consumed her. She looked down at the floor, sighed deeply, then let go of Barriss’s hand and wrapped her arms around herself. It was reminiscent of the day she’d returned from Carlac, the day she and Barriss shared their first kiss. Barriss could feel herself filling with unadulterated rage.

“No!” Barriss screamed, reaching back out for Ahsoka desperately, successfully draping one of her arms over Ahsoka’s shoulders, “Why!? Tell them you can’t! Tell them what happened!”

“Do you think it would matter? Barriss, I can’t let my feelings get in the way of duty. I’ve got to be better than that,” Ahsoka said. The tears started rolling down her cheeks. Barriss wanted to strangle the members of the council.

“This is absurd, Ahsoka! He sexually assaulted you! You can’t help him! This isn’t about not being able to manage feelings! This is a bridge too far,” Barriss explained, trying to reason with her.

“And, this isn’t about him,” Ahsoka said. “To hell with him, Barriss! He’s an asshole. I don’t like it, but I have to do this. There are other people that are involved that are counting on me. I’m a Jedi. I have to be better. It’s just… it’s not easy. None of this is easy. It’s going to take everything I’ve got to focus… especially since… you and I can’t…” her voice started to break again.

Barriss cupped Ahsoka’s face in her hands. To hell with Lux, but also to hell with the council. Barriss and Ahsoka stared into one another’s eyes with an overwhelming sense of yearning. Ahsoka intuitively inched forward and kissed Barriss’s lips. It started slowly, but became increasingly desperate. She pulled Barriss closer, then fell on top of her in the bed.

Barriss put her arms around Ahsoka’s strong shoulders and pulled Ahsoka toward her, coming up to breathe for a moment, then deepening the kiss further. Their hands grasping at each other perilously as they tangled their bodies together.

Then, Ahsoka stopped suddenly, completely out of breath, “I… can’t. We… we can’t do this, Barriss.” Ahsoka got up, used her right hand to wipe off her lips, then walked over and stared out the window, propping herself up against the wall with her left hand.

Barriss leapt up. She walked up behind Ahsoka and wrapped her arms around her waist, pulled forward, and gently kissed her shoulder. She stood their for a moment like that as she felt Ahsoka melt back into her, “I love you,” Barriss whispered.

Ahsoka grabbed Barriss’s arms and turned around to face her. She then matched Barriss by wrapping her arms around her waist. Ahsoka gently kissed Barriss on the lips, then on her cheek while letting out a despondent sigh, “I love you, too. That is why we can’t do this. We can’t jeopardize our future like this. Maybe some day, things will change. For now, we must play by the council’s rules and do as they say.”

Suddenly, something inside Barriss snapped. Her face hinted at her outrage, then relaxed so not to alarm Ahsoka, “The council doesn’t even play by its own rules, Ahsoka.”

Ahsoka pulled Barriss’s body close to hers one last time, “It’ll all be okay some day, Barriss. I have to believe that.” She kissed Barriss on the cheek, then on the lips, then started to pull away from their embrace. “I’ve got to go to bed. I’ll be… leaving for Onderon in the morning.”

Barriss headed for the door. She and Ahsoka wouldn’t be cuddling tonight, she thought. They may never cuddle again. All of this….every bit of it broke Barriss’s heart. “Good night, sweetheart,” Barriss said with a sorrowful frown, then she opened it and walked out.

Ahsoka shared the sorrowful glance back at Barriss as their eyes met for the last time that evening, “Good night.”

Barriss could feel every last drop of happiness leave her body as she walked towards her dormitory alone. It was quickly being replaced with unfiltered indignation and rage. How dare the council send Ahsoka to train that stupid asshole Lux on Onderon without considering how that may make her feel after being assaulted? How dare they keep this stupid war going in the first place? And, how dare they break her and Ahsoka apart?

She had nothing left to give. Barriss was breaking.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Sometimes I can just never understand the hate that Beth receives from the GA. I’m always reading posts and comments about how Beth was a useless character or a brat or whatever, but they don’t really understand how important her character is. We don’t even have to view this in a Bethyl way—even if she did cause Daryl to burn down his past and become the character we all love and know now. Beth was just the epitome of good and hope and yeah even if she was a tinyyyy bit stubborn with getting a drink, she was able to drag Daryl out of his catatonic state and change him for good. Also hello—she was literally a surrogate mother for Judith and that was an extremely important role she had to play but she NEVER gets credit for it. She saved Carol at the hospital too and we all know just how much the GA cherishes Carol, yet the GA still calls Beth useless. Idk, it’s a bit frustrating and it’s so obvious people hate her mainly because she was paired with Daryl and like, kinda stole his heart..lol.

I have so many responses to this, lol. First of all, obviously I totally agree with you. I loved everything you said here.

The thing is, I don't think most of the GA hated Beth or still does. I think it was mostly the other shippers, especially the Carylers. For exactly the reasons you said: it was obvious they were setting up a Bethyl romance and that really threatened the other ships. Even though many of those shippers are very loud online, they truly are a minority. Most the GA either really liked Beth and Daryl together or at least didn't hate her. A lot of them probably had a meh-whatever-as-long-as-Daryl's-happy mentality about it. But again, they didn't hate her. It just seems like it's a lot of people because the online shippers are so loud about their beliefs.

As to her getting a drink, people's reaction to that has always bothered me. Because we've seen similar storylines with other characters. Maybe not the drink exactly, but what she did here to deal with her grief wasn't terribly different than Rick going to crazy town for a minute after Lori died. People might possibly wonder why Rick was like...frolicking with the butterflies in the yard when his family--including a newborn--needed him. But no one really said anything like that. And then there's Daryl in Find Me, who was so depressed for months and months that he hung out with the woods and didn't go back and see his family at Alexandria or the other communities for the better part of 2 years. Why doesn't anyone criticize him for that?

And don't get me wrong. I'm not being critical of either of our favorite heroes here. It's called trauma, people, and everyone deals with it in their own way. Beth dealing with it by looking for a drink probably sprang from what had already been established about both her character and her family (Hershel was an alcoholic in his youth).

So, all I'm saying is, keep in mind that the people who hate on her for that and think she's useless are being extremely hypocritical and exercising a truly shocking double standard. And the truth is, that kind of hate comes way more from women in the fandom than men. Think about that.

Obviously I also agree with you about Beth's affect on Daryl. That's been well established in our fandom, and I don't think I need to go into too much detail about it here. (Plenty of other metas already written about that.) But even outside of Daryl and their magical dynamic together, Beth's own arc was so much more than the haters make it out to be.

It's funny that you mention her taking care of Judith. My fellow theorists and I have been talking about the storyline, mostly in Fear right now, though I think the Maggie/Negan spinoff will get wrapped up in the same thing, of the children being kidnapped. From the very beginning, we saw children and babies around Beth, and we firmly believe Beth will be a big part of that storyline.

And what that means, is that the writers didn't have Beth taking care of Baby Judith back in S4 just because it was convenient or because they didn't know what to do with her character. They did it, at least in S4 and on after Gimple took over, because they were already setting up an arc for her that is just now playing out.

I get that most of the GA doesn't know or see that. Even so, these two arcs--Beth taking care of children and now children being taken by the CRM, when it's so obvious Grady was connected to the CRM--are so clearly linked over time. Believing that Beth was nothing more than a "babysitter" is severely short-sighted.

I could probably say more, but I'll stop there. Thanks for your thoughts, Nonny! As I said, heartily agree! Xoxo! 🍀💕

[sunnydaleherald]

The Sunnydale Herald Newsletter - Monday, September 4th

HOLDEN: No, no. Feels great. Strong. Like I'm connected to a powerful all-consuming evil that's gonna suck the world into a firey oblivion. How 'bout you? BUFFY: Not so much connected

~~Conversations With Dead People~~

[Drabbles & Short Fiction]

Ignite (Spike/Buffy, E) by HollyDB

Slayer Bound (Spike/Buffy, M) by HollyDB

Grieving on the Inside (Leverage crossover, not rated) by Telaryn

[French language] La Rencontre (Gen, T) by guepard54

everything in the world changes, and nothing changes at all (Spike/Buffy, R) by disco-tea

[Chaptered Fiction]

Next Time Won't You Sing With Me Chapter 16 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Willow91

Dusk Rising Chapter 22 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by HappyWhenItRains

The Aurelian Prophecy: There's No Way Out Chapter 4 (Buffy/Spike, R) by Willow91

In The Dark With You Chapter 20 (Buffy/Spike, R) by Geliot99

Haunted Chapter 2 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by scratchmeout

Anything We Want, Part 2 Chapter 14 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by scratchmeout

I Do! Chapter 16 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by Dusty

Bad Necromance Chapter 1 (Buffy/Spike, R) by Rea

Those 2 again Chapter 46 (Buffy/Spike, PG) by Julikobold

The Nips! Chapter 12 (Buffy/Spike, PG-13) by Desicat

A Place in the Sun Chapter 15 (Buffy/Spike, NC-17) by honeygirl51885

Chosen Chapter 1 (Buffy/Angel, not rated) by jupiter_dandelion

Boyfriend & Girlfriend Chapter 3 (Cordelia/Xander, E) by CambrianBeckett

Pavlov's Spell Chapter 6 (Buffy/Spike, E) by ret_wat

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The Buffy Re-watch: S2E11 (part 1) by jvstheworld

[Fandom Discussions]

Slayer dreams by explosionshark

rewatched the halloween episode from season 2 by caliburn-the-sword

Kendra could absolutely have supported her own show by secretlyasummers

The online Buffy fandom seems to really like talking about the “original plans” for the show... by coraniaid

Buffy trusting Spike in season five feels incredibly ooc and makes her look stupid in some cases by stjoandearc

My issue with Willows arc in season 6 by buffy-targaryen

i can’t stop thinking about Illyria-possessed Tara by feelsnotfeelings

One of those BTVS moments of near brilliance by deadthingu

I’ve just watched the ‘Angel the Series’ episode ‘Billy’ by girl4music

Going back to one of my favorite spuffy moments… by winterlovesong1

The Buffy 2019 remake need a second chance by MCyves__

Why did buffy leave Sunnydale by Gibby11

When do we think buffy started wanting Spike? by WhatName230

Best Buffy TVS Episode? by snowmanlvr69

What is Jenny Calendar’s archetype by StatusStunning8142

Passions is a real show?!! by PJpittie

Buffy gets kicked out of her house by lianagolucky

“Bring new life to the Old One”? by oliversurpless

The many Metaphors of BTVS! by NessaKins91

Can someone explain why I’m left feeling underwhelmed about Faith’s 4 episode arc by classified12345

What episode do you find bad but often isn’t criticized? by ApprehensiveBuy2009

Season 4 episode 12 (a new man) why the attack on Giles! by Dorothy-704

Re-watching SELFLESS by kipcarson37

Why did the Scoobies continuously underutilize Anya? by Stellz04

Something I noticed is Buffy forgiving Angel and Spike for the things they did while vampires by sushibananawater

Do y'all even like this show? by anonymous

Buffy fans.. need to know: is Angel worth watching ? by LayerBig7783

Rewatching season 2 (as one does…) and Xander is annoying me more and more by LayerBig7783

Buffy Really is in a Mental Hospital by Jaxsonj01

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[galaxythreads]

Uhm... hi! Lore for Stygian? It's like one of my top favorite fics and I have it downloaded on my kindle to read offline, I love it sm!

I’m glad you love it so much. :) 

I was working on this for two+ hours and then my internet crashed and deleted everything. Which. :/ Good and terrible. I do not want to restart. I’m exhausted. I need to sleep. Terrible because I worked so hard on it. 

Good because. Well. 

Moment of honesty here. As I was going through lore for this, I came to the realization that the reason I hate Stygian so much has less to do with the writing style and more with how deeply, deeply traumatizing this section of my life was when I was writing it. Reading over the chapters was actually greatly distressing. Love the story’s concept. Hate the story itself because of what was going on at the time. 

I have severe c-pstd. This story has unfortunately turned into a massive trigger and I had no idea until now. Reading through some of the thoughts or the scenes was really, really hard. I was skipping entire sections of the story in the lore collection TM to avoid this. I’m fine with discussing the story as a whole, but the moment we start to dissect this and read specific lines is when I start to fall apart emotionally. 

As for what this means for Death Must be Lonely Like I Am, fingers crossed it’s different enough to not trigger me as badly as this did. 

I apologize that I can’t give as much lore for this fic as I could the others. 

Here’s as much as I can think of in a bullet-pointed list in ten minutes and then I’m going to go to bed. 

The entire story was planned in a notebook by hand with colored pens 

There was no reason for Steve to be in the basement with Tony in chapter 3(?), tony just pulled him down there to get him out of guard duty

I did not know how to drive when I wrote the car chase

I researched washing machines for like an hour before writing the scene where Laura was asking advice from Clint 

I fully embraced the tropes of hte time because they were fun and I wanted to work with them

English being the common-tongue on Asgard is the shittest thing I’ve ever read my past self doing. 

i had a thing against all-speak when I wrote this

I want to formally apologize to Deaf people for how I portrayed Clint as a deaf person

Loki and Tony were always going to bond over the Void

Everyone had a meticulous character arc that I planned out with SO MUCH FREAKING DETAIL

The first chapter is not the actual first chapter, it’s an edited version from a year later

I did not originally intend for them to ever go back to Clint’s mental health hospital, it was a happy accident

Alexander Pierce was supposed to visit the Raft with them in chapter 1

the reason the Avengers get kidnapped and shipped in a van across the country is because I watched The Gifted 

The grand reveal of Loki’s scars was - no joke - originally going to happen because Clint would dump boiling water on Loki

I found the Avengers chilling in the kitchen to be very comforting 

I wrot ethe scene where Lila and Cooper find Steve and co by hand at first

I think I originally misspelled Lila’s name as Lilia, and if not in this fic it was another one

i was still using cats as a curse word, WHY is a story for another time and related to me getting bullied/harassed off of my first ff.net account

my memories of this are fuzzy, but i THINK that I uploaded a majority of Stygian all at once. Like chapters 1-10 were posted in a day. Or that was Append? I have no idea honestly. One of hte two. 

I had already started Stygian when I got my a03 account though

Yes, loki has his sight back at the end of the story

God the actual deity is in this

Lila’s cat obsession was based off of my younger sister

I wrote the chapter where they wake up on the Barton farm while co-watching a sherlock holmes tv series (not Elementary or BBC Sherlock. An older version I can’t remember the name of right now) 

The Avengers hunting each other through the Tower was inspired by not one but TWO separate fics where this happened 

No one visited Loki while he was in the cell. That’s why he still had the muzzle on. Everyone was too afraid of him to approach the cell

Bucky being there was one of the base ideas for this. He was always going to be in the fic. He has a bigger role in DMBLLIA. 

The narrative parallel of the Avengers saving Loki from the Raft and Loki saving them from HYDRA was built into the plan 

someone yelled at me recently (in comment form) about how Bruce not feeling guilty about hurting Loki in chapter 8 was proof he was a psychopath even though the conversation was about not taking guilt for things that aren’t your fault. this was kinda funny. 

I might add to this tomorrow, but who knows. I am going to bed. 

asks about any of the bullet points if you want more information should tentatively be okay? if they’re not I’ll let you know. 

[todomitoukei]

English vs. Japanese Shouto - A 298 Comparison

Welcome back to another comparison between the Japanese version and the official English translation. This chapter has caused a lot of confusion as soon as the spoilers came out, particularly in regards to the last line in Shouto’s monologue. Does he want to kill Dabi? Is he going to fight him?

Aside from the confusion, this chapter is important for both Shouto’s character, as well as his and Dabi’s storyline, moving forward.

The scene starts with a panel of Shouto in his hospital bed, surrounded by his classmates who by now are also aware of the situation. As we find out at the end of the chapter, Shouto’s throat is burned, so he currently can’t talk. Regardless, he has a lot to say or rather a lot to reflect on, starting with an obvious fact:

“His flames are stronger than dad’s.”

An obvious fact and a simple sentence. But what about the original?

「あいつの炎は親父よりも強かった。」

「あいつ ; aitsu 」-> he; that guy

「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe

「炎 ; honou 」-> flame

「は ; ha 」-> topic marker particle

「親父 ; oyaji 」-> dad

「よりも ; yori mo 」-> in comparison to; more than

「強かった ; tsuyokatta 」-> was strong

= “His flames were stronger than dad’s.”

The difference here is the tense. While the original text has Shouto say that the flames “were” stronger, the English translation has him say they “are” stronger. It’s not really an important difference, but I think the past tense was him reflecting on the one fact he knew about Touya before all this. The first time we, the readers, heard about Touya in chapter 202 -

was during Shouto’s early training days, where Endeavor brought up Touya and the fact that “his fire was greater” - so this is a fact Shouto was raised with, someone he was essentially compared to. Touya set the bar high, but Endeavor expected Shouto to raise the bar even higher.

“I couldn’t win with firepower alone. So strong… Those flames full of hate.”

While Shouto had so far only been told about Touya’s strength, this is the first time he got to actually experience this himself. Now, Touya’s flames being stronger isn’t just something Endeavor said, but something Shouto knows.

「火力で勝てなかった強い。。。憎しみの炎だった。」

「火力 ; karyoku」-> firepower

「で ; de 」-> with

「勝てなかった ; katenakatta 」-> couldn’t win

「強い ; tsuyoi 」-> strong

「憎しみ ; nikushimi 」-> hatred

「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe

「炎 ; honou 」-> flame

「だった ; datta 」-> was

= “I couldn’t win with firepower. Strong… it was a flame of strong hatred.”

Again, not a big difference, especially since the English translation made sure to split the text the same way as the original, but tsuyoi (strong) is an adjective that attaches to the noun, nikushimi (hatred). Sure, his flames are strong, but more importantly, his hatred is strong and that is the bigger problem here.

Not only does Dabi have a stronger flame, but his hatred grants him even more power as he’s not held back by any rational thought or feeling. Like a forest fire, you can’t just extinguish it. Instead, it keeps spreading and growing larger and larger.

“And he’s… been watching us all this time.”

Next, we get the flashback to the first time Shouto met Dabi back in the summer arc. Maybe Dabi’s “How sad, poor little Shouto Todoroki” didn’t mean that much to Shouto - who might have just assumed that Dabi knew his name from the sports festival - but now he understands that this had been planned for a long time. Touya “died” around ten years ago and during all that time, Dabi had been thinking about this moment. 

「あいつはずっと見てたんだ。」

「あいつ ; aitsu 」-> he; that guy

「は ; ha 」-> topic marker particle

「ずっと ; zutto 」-> continuously; the whole time

「見てた ; miteta 」-> was watching

「んだ ; nda 」-> explanatory particle

= “He was watching the whole time.”

Again, not much of a difference except for the tense. Another thing that this is implying is that Dabi is incredibly patient. Instead of just being filled with rage and letting it out all, he waited in the shadows for years, even when being so close to Shouto he chose to keep his composure, even though he could’ve just killed him right then and there if he had wanted to.

Something that got lost in translation is the nuance of the nda at the end of the sentence, which can have multiple meanings. Here, it expresses reason and discovery, as Shouto understands his first encounter with Dabi now. Sort of like saying “Oh, so that’s why he knew my name. That’s what he has been up to the entire time.”

“All… to bring down dad. Wrecking his own body along the way… and not giving a damn whose lives get ruined in the process.”

「親父を貶めるためだけにその身を滅ぼしながらあらゆる人の人生を巻き込んで。」

「親父 ; oyaji 」-> dad

「を ; o 」-> direct object marker

「貶める ; otoshimeru 」-> to look down upon; to cause to fall

「ため ; tame 」-> purpose 

「だけに ; dake ni 」-> being the case; precisely 

「その ; sono 」-> that

「身 ; mi 」-> body; oneself

「を ; o 」-> direct object marker

「滅ぼしながら ; horoboshi nagara 」-> while destroying

「あらゆる人 ; ara yuru hito 」-> all kinds of people

「の ; no 」-> possessive particle; similar to an apostrophe

「人生 ; jinsei 」-> human life

「を ; o 」-> direct object marker

「巻き込んで ; makikonde 」-> involving; dragging into

= “For the purpose of causing dad’s downfall, he destroyed his body at the same time and dragged other lives into it.”

I find the additional “not giving a damn” in the official translation interesting (= I hate it)… since he literally doesn’t say that, but sure let’s just add this to make it seem like Shouto is judging Dabi here when he is not doing that at all. This is merely an observation, stating the fact that his older brother’s mind was so clouded by hatred that he involved other people’s lives in their family business. This isn’t to say that Shouto doesn’t see this as wrong, but it’s not the point and not something he is focusing on. He’s connecting the dots, making sense of the situation, and understanding the reasons that led to Dabi’s crimes rather than just stating the obvious of “this is wrong.”

On to one of my favorite lines this chapter: “He’s basically... me.”

「あいつは俺だ。」

「あいつ ; aitsu 」-> he; that guy

「は ; ha 」-> topic marker particle

「俺 ; ore 」-> I

「だ ; da 」-> be

= “That guy is me.”

So, I’m not sure why the “basically” was added in the official English translation since Shouto doesn’t say it like that. He just says “Touya = me.” It’s a fact. Obviously, Shouto isn’t actually Touya, but the “basically” isn’t needed unless you suddenly think that maybe Shouto hass two separate bodies at once somehow. This might be nitpicking, and there have definitely been bigger changes before, but to me the “basically” distances the two, even though the sentence is supposed to show that they are the same. Yes, one is on the hero side and the other on the villain side. Of course there are differences. But again, it’s not about the crimes Dabi has committed or how these two brothers differ. It’s about what’s going on in their minds, what feelings control their every action. They come from the same place, physically and mentally. The way they reacted to their pain is the same, with the big difference being what Shouto points out next:

“I was also burning with rage… up until that day.”

That day, as the panel shows, being the sports festival, the day Shouto began to see clearly. But Dabi didn’t have a moment like that (yet) and so he continues going down that path, while Shouto managed to leave that mindset.

「あの日までの俺がこの身を焼いたんだ。」

「あの ; ano 」-> that

「日 ; hi 」-> day

「まで ; made 」-> until

「の ; no 」-> nominalizes the preceding phrase

「俺 ; ore 」-> I

「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle

「この ; kono 」-> this

「身 ; mi 」-> body; oneself

「を ; o 」-> direct object marker

「焼いた ; yaita 」-> was burning

「んだ ; nda 」-> explanatory particle

= “Until that day, I burned this body.”

As mentioned earlier, the nda is an explanatory particle. Here, it again expresses discovery. Shouto draws a conclusion here: Just like he used to burn his body, Dabi is still doing the same to his.

Again, his focus is not on Dabi, the villain, but Touya, his older brother, and someone just like Shouto. While other people might just see a mentally unstable criminal, Shouto sees how self-destructive Dabi is. And because Shouto hadn’t realized how clouded his mind was, he understands that Dabi most likely doesn’t quite realize this either. Dabi ignores his own pain, all in order to destroy Endeavor. A cry for help that others aren’t capable of comprehending.

“Dad can’t do it…”

「親父じゃやれねェ。。。」

「親父 ; oyaji 」-> dad

「じゃ ; jya 」-> casual particle

「やれ ねェ ; yarenee 」-> can’t do

= “Dad can’t do it.”

[EDIT because this part originally had a different explanation: As pointed out by this anon here, the jya in this case is a casual particle to mark the topic/subject, and the nee part is the casual form of nai, which negates the verb. The translation is the same but the explanation is different!]

And now, for the last line:

“I have to be the one… to handle… my brother Touya.”

Handle him…

「燈矢兄は俺がやらなきゃ。」

「燈矢 ; touya 」-> Touya

「兄 ; nii 」-> suffix for older brother

「は ; ha 」-> topic marker particle

「俺 ; ore 」-> I

「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle

「やらなきゃ ; yaranakya 」-> must do it

= “I am the one that has to take care of Touya-Nii.”

So this is the line that caused confusion and panic, due to the yaranakya part. As you can see by the meaning of the word, similar to how “must do it” can have multiple meanings in English, the same logic applies to the Japanese word. It’s also important to note that the word here consists of the two parts yaru (to do) and nakya (must do). Nakya not only expresses that you have to do something, but, in this case, also shows determination. Shouto really has to do it and will do it. But do what exactly? Again, the problem with yaru is that its meaning depends on context, but sometimes context itself isn’t super helpful. One of the definitions of yaru is “to kill” and that might be what some people think it means here? But context tells us that this makes zero sense. Why show how much he understands his brother only to turn around and decide “well, I got help but he hasn’t so I’m just gonna have to kill him, I guess” - no.

More importantly, right before this line, he says “dad can’t do it” - what can’t he do? If we were talking about killing him, then why would Shouto be able to do it and not Endeavor? Of course, there are the... funny people who suggested that only Shouto can fight/kill his brother because unlike him, Endeavor has an emotional attachment to Dabi (I’m just not gonna comment on this). Anyway, to answer the question of what Endeavor can’t do but Shouto can, we have to look at what Shouto said before that, which is talking about him also having burned his body until the sports festival. This is the key moment where Shouto’s and Dabi’s similarities end and only because someone was reaching out to Shouto. So obviously, in order to have Dabi stop being self-destructive and fueled by hatred, someone needs to reach out to Dabi. And that’s the thing that Endeavor can’t do. After all, Endeavor is the root cause of this, which in turn brings this scene to a full circle since right before Shouto’s monologue began, we got this flashback to what Starservant said in chapter 244:

“That one is the root cause,” accompanied by a panel showing Endeavor.

For reference, here’s the Japanese counterpart:

「其奴こそが元凶じゃ！！」

「其奴 ; soyatsu 」-> that guy

「こそ ; koso 」-> for sure (emphasizes preceding word)

「が ; ga 」-> subject marker particle

「元凶 ; genkyou 」-> culprit; main source

「じゃ ; jya 」-> sentence ender often used for old people in fiction

= “That guy is definitely the main source!”

Shouto remembering this is just stating an obvious fact that he hadn’t fully understood before: Dabi’s existence is Endeavor’s fault. His actions drove Touya to become Dabi, someone whose sole purpose for existing is to destroy Endeavor. So Endeavor couldn’t possibly save him. No matter what Endeavor would say or do, it would be meaningless. But Shouto is different because Shouto was Dabi. The big obstacle Shouto has to figure out how to overcome is making his big brother understand this, too. Regardless, Shouto is the only one that can reach out to him and the only one that fully understands him.

Another important to point out with this line, and many others have already talked about this, is that Shouto now refers to Dabi as Touya-Nii, whereas on the battlefield a few days prior, Shouto only called him Touya, without the “nii”. He is now actively acknowledging that this is, in fact, his big brother. He isn’t Dabi, the villain. And he isn’t just Touya, either - some abstract idea; someone Shouto has heard of but never met or talked to (not confirmed, but likely). This is now his big bro, just like Natsuo is, and just like Fuyumi is his big sister. They’re family.

Overall, this chapter was actually pretty accurate in terms of translation; though granted, Shouto isn’t a villain so the bias isn’t there… but anyway, this marks a very important turning point in the story and gives us a rough idea of what’s in store for Shouto from here on out.

He recognizes where Dabi is coming from. He doesn’t just see him as a villain, but rather someone who has been so full of hatred - for good reasons - that he ended up dragging innocent people into this. The focus, though, is entirely on that one fact: “That guy is me.”

Shouto understands that he could have turned out the same way, he understands hurting his own body just to spite his father.

The key concern with this chapter was that Shouto said that he’s going to kill Touya. I have no idea who started this rumor, but as mentioned, there is a possible confusion regarding yaru, which has multiple meanings. But although he doesn’t explicitly say “I will save him” it’s obvious from everything else he says during this chapter. If he recognizes that they’re the same, his conclusion won’t be “I have to kill him.” Especially when taking into consideration the fact that Shouto also pointed out that he couldn’t win against Dabi with his fire. And no, that doesn’t mean he can beat him with his ice or that that’s what he intends on doing. It’s not clear what he will be doing exactly, but that is partially due to the fact that Shouto is currently not in a state where he could possibly figure out the answer, either. 

But he has a goal: saving Touya-Nii - not so much from Endeavor, but from Dabi.

Next week’s chapter will hopefully focus on the Todofam conversation about to take place and will maybe give us some more hints as to what to expect. So far, though, it’s very obvious that Shouto will try to reach out to Dabi and save him, much like he was also saved from his hatred during the sports festival. He might not have a relationship with Touya the way he has started to build one with Natsuo and Fuyumi, but they have a much deeper connection because they are the same person.

[hoarsedevours]

my god i am holleringgggg on the damn floorrrrrr!!!!! (pleaseeeee someone make a gifset of shockeed! heedo in the men's bathroom, heard it lengthens life expectancy) 🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣 writers really said let's give them a respite before the real breakup arc begins. ok i am ok with that, i am super okay actually that i get to see some really fluffy moments in this ep, some good tension that can lead to something more significant (👀) in the future, and yes....some sad yet relatable moments...you know...as a member of the proletariat.

i went into this episode with the assumption that i would be kind of awkward when yijin fucking licked that ice cream in front of highschooler heedo lol but what the hell the countless times i pulled my hair because of the giddiness i felt for the YiDo moments ahhhhhhhhh (i can't get behind YiHe sorry 😞😂) heedo's cuteness is out of this world!!!! she is having a crush!!!! and she is conflicted!!!!! and it's making her insane!!!!(more than her usual amount of insanity to be specific) but i have to admire heedo's determination in crossing out every face in daeun's section just to see daeun's face who unfortunately for heedo is inspireed by sadako. we need to protect this cinnamon roll!!!! and yijin really sees her as his personal entertainer, huh? i meant the good kind, the kind where you say shit like "i DoNt nEeD a rAiNb0w" (me continuing that statement: "bEcAuSE u ArE mY rAinB0W...) good goddd i am crazy over these two fools!!!!! i am losing my mind over heedo losing her mind in the next episodeeeeee ahhhhhhhh ahahhahahahshhahahhahaha. however, on a serious note, i think that heedo's the only one crushing hard...good...good...good..... (wow icb im saying these things when ive done some crazier shit when i was 19 🤡)

*sighs like a grandma* the hair ruffle....the fireman carry just to get her feet to safety....the face wiping..... the always on hand stickers that is JUST IN CASE THEY MET OH MY GOD VERY MUCH LIKE HOW HE CARRIES AROUND FULL HOUSE VOLUME 15 *sighs deeply, took my heart out and placed it in the refrigerator (can't have too much fluff or it'll malfunction* (.....if they really didn't end up in the present timeline i think that yijin's carrying in his person some personal memento from heedo or maybe from both of them....you know....just in case......pain)

heedo's mom is insufferable and maybe that's an understatement still. how is she like that???? how does she sleep at night knowing she hurts her daughter's feelings often and once crushed her friend's heart? and she kicked yijin???? but later told heedo that that was a good call?!!!!! maam????!!! we need to get you to a mental hospital, i think. my god the parents of boomers' (omg heedo and yijin can pass as a boomer today lolllll. i mean probably they are generation x but still 🤣) today really have it hard to be doing shits like that. correcting the mistakes of your subordinates is okay but physically assaulting them is not. jeezusssss. she's probably the character i don't like the most in this show. great acting but i hate what her character largely represents.

anyway, i reallllllllllly love seungwan's character. i think she's my most favorite sans the leads. maybe i see myself in her. we have several similarities after all. keep doing u girl! i hope she gets to have some BAMF moment in the future like dismantling capitalism. oh too big? maybe advocating for the compulsory therapy of mothers and mothers-to-be instead lollllll

literally net zero information about min chae's father. it's not like i expected her to say "im so glad father took mother's side" because that would end the intrigueeee. im also here for the intrigue ngl 😭 but like can they give us hintssss to work withhhh? her father quarantining is a solid one but we need moreeeee. or did they alreadyyy.... and i am too dumb to realize it? 💀

.....i think that something really bad would happen to yurim's mom.....

i believe that the majority of this episode is for our sword-wielding bisexuals to expand their rivals-to-lovers dynamic and i am always here for ittttttt like crazy ahhhhhh ahahhahah that tension! man.... kissing is a nice resolution, actually

and the meeting up???? insanity! 🤣 glorious insanity!!!

so when yijin told yurim that he will assess if the person she will be meeting is safe or not, i imagine feral heedo with rabies and yijin have to restrain herrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr😭😭😭😭😭😭😭😭

and as i've said i am hollering over the majority of this episode! great contrast to yesterday's situation. especially when heedo walked decisively to yijin and saying "i have to have you" ah aha hahahh hahhahahahahha hajhdjhagsdjhgajsdjahjkhjkahhjhaks heedooooooooo😭😭😭😭 what do you mean😭 like as a pet? as a clown? as a professional life coach? as your uhhh.....boyfriend????!!!! she really keeps yijin on his toes and keeps his mind sharp because of the thinking he is doing to get heedo out of tricky situations pr even just to understand her actions lolllllll

thank god for fluff i can sleep peacefully now

[marieanneline]

wait wait hold up i am actually seething about the reveal

ya boi's not a dabi stan. at all. the only reason i'm remotely interested in his character is if he's actually related to shouto and how that would affect hero society in general. i remember reading the training camp arc, seeing him being one of the villains there, him saying todoroki's full name, and thinking "SIBLINGS?????" because agshdfjlk their EYES are SO SIMILAR!! i really want to give credit to horikoshi being able to portray their similarities from artstyle alone because that's talent.

(it's more apparent in the anime since you see the eye color— but appearance-wise, shouto takes after rei and dabi takes after enji the most, so this definitely isn't the best photo to prove my point...)

anyways,,,, dabi's ideals of heroics fall in line with stain's ideals and so we all already theorized how if he was the long lost big brother touya, it would be because of the fact that his father really wasn't a hero. this makes sense. and so, we're all fucking right. props to us, really, and props to horikoshi for all the foreshadowing because i had fun :)) in terms of story and plot, i think this reveal is fantastic.

alright, on to why dabi is a dick

(i'm assuming this was his choice and no one pressured him after all)

the todoroki family is on the road to recovery!!

- shouto finally visits his mother back in season 2 and visits her every chance he gets. you see the effort he makes and it's nice to see him change from season 1 to 2 (early-roki!!)

(guys he even sends her letters- look at that sparkle by his face!! he's sweet :)) and rei's smile!!!!)

- enji (whether we wanted it or not, i don't mind much personally) is trying to atone for everything he's done to his family

- natsuo, who originally wasn't fond of shouto because he had their father's attention (although he does come to the horrible realization that shouto was one of the most unfortunate) and mother's attention (because she wanted to protect shouto), has a closer relationship with his little brother now (can you believe he didn't even know shouto's favorite food was cold soba until ch. 192?? i was sobbing). he really regrets the prejudice he had against shouto and he's trying to be an actual brother to him now.

- rei's almost recovered enough to be released from the hospital!!

- fuyumi and her idyllic "happy family"– wHICH, BY THE WAY, ALMOST CAME TO FRUITION. their mother coming home, shouto connecting with his siblings, and enji being not-the-way-he-was-before is the best outcome they could have hoped for. and it was happening.

and i realize that all of that setup is for this very moment

this? this. this. this is being broadcasted. to everyone. that means the citizens know that their new #1 hero is directly related to a member of a really bad villain organization (i almost called it a terrorist group oop-).

by ruining endeavor, the citizens faith in heroes will collapse. this also affects shouto's reputation as an upcoming hero, and i am so terrified of what this could mean for him. imagine your career ending before it even started, just when you found your passion for being a hero again. all that progress he's made for himself since starting UA could be seen as pointless to him and i would hate for him to retrogress like that because it's not his fault. i would absolutely hate it if the media starts bashing shouto for being related to a villain, when he was also a victim of abuse.

seeing this look on shouto's face is making me dehydrated istg i'm fucking SOBBING— he doesn't even look angry!! in the last few chapters he was angry and worried for his friends, teachers, father maybe, other heroes... but he just looks sad. and the fact that the panel chooses to show the left side of his face is.... there's so much to unpack.

but yeah, this is being broadcasted. does fuyumi know? the cameo she had showed her working so maybe not. natsuo's cameo showed that he was at a lecture, so he also probably didn't see.

but rei did. that's like- that's the person i would want to keep this from the most.

the effects of this entire reveal genuinely scare me. how will this affect rei's mental state? she'll realize that what enji did is actually so much worse. their first child being a villain?? i'm terrified for how she'll react, she's doing much better in recent chapters after all. her kids are visiting her, shouto sends her letters to keep in touch, and enji sends her flowers and respectfully keeps his distance. i really don't want this reveal to result in a relapse. and if she does relapse, then fuyumi's ideal of a happy family is once again out of arms reach. the future of their mother finally coming back home is so far away again and it's genuinely so heart-breaking.

:(

plus— how will fuyumi's little elementary school students react to her being related to a villain? will the school fire her because of her connection to a villain and how that might cause concerns for students and parents????

it's also hard to say exactly how this will affect shouto and natsuo. natsuo was the closest to touya when they were kids so what would his whole opinion be of what touya's become? will he have a moral crisis?

in terms of moral crisises, i guess i'm more concerned about shouto. the boy knows he wants to forgive his father, but this is just making it so much harder. and after this, will he still want to? and finding out that his own sibling is a villain... remember the stain arc? there were some parallels between midoriya's, iida's, and todoroki's positions in the last chapter and i'm worried about what that could foreshadow. from that arc alone, we know that shouto doesn't agree with stain's views at all [i forgot what he said but it was really compelling]. we know that dabi's a stain follower though, so will this disrupt shouto's sense of justice? i hope not.

but family has always been kind of a weak spot for shouto, hasn't it? i hope this doesn't affect his resolve to be a hero because i do think that there's a way to– somehow– not have a corrupt hero society and i want him to fight for that.

touya being a villain is perfectly valid though, i don't doubt that. it's just disheartening to address that while every other todoroki was working hard to become a normal family, here's their oldest brother, who's not really dead. what's going to become of that altar at their house now?

learning the extent to touya's hatred towards endeavor is truly terrifying. we know enji is or was a horrible person and his redemption arc is based on the very fact that he can't be forgiven, despite some of his family trying their best to do so or at least get over it. but the fact that touya has even thought about killing shouto? that's just. ouch. touya's definitely gone through too much abuse, and all of the todoroki family problems are because of enji's bad parenting. but this does not justify murder and especially that of his younger brother, who also got the brunt of the abuse.

needless to say, i am a fool. i don't know if anything i just said will ever be true, but the important thing to take from whatever the heck i just shat out is that all of this is/could be a result of this reveal. it's the fact that dabi seems to have no sympathy. it's the fact that he doesn't care if his blood related family crashes and burns. really, if this is solely about endeavor and what he did, there's no need to bring the rest of the family into this. rei was sent to a hospital for god's sake. shouto has a scar. it's excessive and unmoral and although questionable ethics and values are key traits of a villain, it doesn't justify how much he's hurting the todorokis.

(look at this shit eating grin he has. no remorse. he really doesn't give a shit about the others but I DO and I'M so SAD)

and assuming that the whole "endeavor's wife admitted into hospital" was swept under the rug in terms of media, will that suddenly come back to light? because it shouldn't. maybe it should be known that she's in the hospital because of marital abuse but either way rei should not be dragged back into this disaster, and neither should the rest of them. there's also a chance that the media will accuse rei of having abused her kids too, which is messed up for different reasons. they're trying so hard to have any semblance of a normal family, and if dabi's way of revealing this to the world ruins that in any way then i hATE THIS REVEAL ASDFGHJKL—

[bamfdaddio]

X-Men Abridged: 1976

The X-Men, those fiery mutants that have sworn to protect a world that hates and fears them, are a cultural juggernaut with a long, tangled history. Want to unravel this tapestry? Then read the Abridged X-Men!

(X-Men 97 - 102) - by Chris Claremont and Dave Cockrum

If I ever participate in Drag Race, this will be my entrance look. (“Hear me, bitches! No longer am I the woman you knew! I am fierce! I am fashion incarnate! Now and forever, the winner of season 27!” *mugs at camera* ) (X-Men 101)

It really amazes me how quickly Claremont shifts things into high gear. One year in and he absolutely does not calm down, giving us both the Shi’ar, more Sentinels and the (motherfucking) Phoenix. SO LET'S GOOOO

You’d think that, as a telepath, Charles would be used to dreaming absolutely twisted shit, surfing everybody else´s freaky dream waves, but apparently, vividly dreaming of space is so exhausting that he needs a vacation.

To be fair, I’d be exhausted too if I dreamt of schizo space bugs on detailed splash pages. Get into it, Mr. Cockrum. (X-Men 97)

Meanwhile, Alex and Lorna have absconded to the sizzling Rio Diablo to work on their doctorates. It’s unclear what they’re studying (archaeology?) and where this Rio Diablo is (Panama, Chili, Ecuador?), but considering that Rio means River, I’m unsure whether drawing a dry dry desert is the appropriate setting. But hey, this was the pre-Google era and you’re not here for topographical nitpicking, so.

Lorna is shot by an unknown assailant and continues the long, long history of Polaris being mentally overtaken by other entities. Together with the equally not-himself Havoc, they travel back to NYC and attack the plane Xavier is boarding. The X-Men battle them, until it is revealed that these former not-quite-X-Men are in league with… Eric the Red?

Scott is all: But I was Eric the Red! Also, Eric the Red does not exist!

Xavier escapes, apparently not giving a fuck that all kinds of X-Men are demolishing the JFK airport, but the still-evil Havok and Polaris also get away. The X-Men are shook!

Some time later, The X-Men celebrate X-Mas at Rockefeller Square, where Claremont skips some steps in favour of narrative expediency. Moira and Sean are apparently in a relationship, Jean and Storm are the best of friends. It’s some pretty rough telling, not showing, but we’ll allow it, but only because the Storm/Jean-friendship is one of my favourite things.

What, you think only the movies indulged in Lee/Kirby-cameos? (X-Men 98)

Anyway, Jean and Scott are attacked by the Sentinels, who continue their trend of being way too sneaky for supersized racist robots! Xavier is kidnapped on his boat trip with super-duper scientist Peter Corbeau (seriously, he has two Nobel Prizes), while they steal away Jean, Sean and Logan in NYC. When they come to, there’s some gloating from Stephen Lang.

Jean Grey being a literal pin-up while delivering nazi-burns is such a big middle finger to everything she was in the sixties and I am here for it. (X-Men 98)

When the three kidnapped X-Men make a break for it and escape the Sentinel’s clutches, they burst through a wall, only to be greeted by the cold vacuum of space! They’re not on Earth at all: they’re on a formerly SHIELD space station! GASP! (literally)

In secret, Peter Corbeau, inventor of sliced bread, helps the X-Men back on Earth board a space shuttle, where Colossus remembers his brother Mikhail (objectively the worst Rasputin), a kosmonaut who died at the launch of another spacecraft. It’s another Future Plotline Seed©.

The X-Men dodge solar storms which sounds like a made-up contrivance but aren’t, while the Sentinels try to destroy the shuttle. In what the kids these days call a pro-gamer move, the X-Men instead ram the space station and go through to these apparently sub-par Sentinels like Magma through butter. Kurt’s showmanship and Colossus’ loyalty are highlighted, while Cyclops becomes more robotic and repressed the more Jean is in danger.

Colossus’ secondary mutation is apparently BEING THE BIGGEST DORK. (X-Men 99)

Scott almost kills Stephen Lang, but then Stephen throws his ace in the hole at them: THE OLD X-MEN? This reveal throws us right in the hallmark one hundredth issue!

And, look. Stephen, this is just a terrible plan. Instead of using most of your budget on making more impressive Sentinels, you blow half of it on making janky X-Men clones to… what? Confuse the real X-Men?

It works for a hot minute, but Kurt and Ororo quickly figure out something is wrong. This Beast, for example, isn’t hairy and this Jean doesn’t remember being in Storm’s confidence. Wolverine is the first to snap: acting on instinct, he kills ‘Jean’, proving she’s an android.

Stephen Lang, foiled by the X-Men’s logical thinking skills (which, to be fair, are notoriously unreliable), spews some hatred and accidentally blows himself up. Nothing of value is lost.

Too bad the X-Men can’t return to Earth: their space shuttle is too damaged. I actually love this: going to space is kind of a big deal for most people and the fact that the X-Men have trouble because they’re stranded in space lends them a kind of vulnerability that has been lost over the recent years. Jean steps up to the plate, herds the other X-Men into the protected life cell and assumes the pilot seat of the shuttle. This is after zapping Cyclops into unconsciousness and telling the other X-Men to kindly fuck off when they try to stop her.

As the X-Men descend onto the Earth, Jean’s telekinesis isn’t enough to protect her as she’s engulfed by solar flares. OR IS SHE?

Nothing funny. All of these panels are just beautiful. Forget those robot copy X-Men, this is why this issue is worthy of being the hundredth one. (X-Men 100)

The space shuttle crashes, rolls over JFK airport before dunking in the water. The X-Men emerge, safe, sound and very lucky and then, defying all odds, Jean emerges as the Phoenix. Fire, life incarnate, etc.

After a brief but melodramatic burst of energy, Jean collapses into unconsciousness and is hospitalized. Wolverine intends to bring her flowers (aw!), before throwing them out when he realizes the gal’s taken, establishing the X-Men’s most famous love triangle. (You can fuck right off with your Scott/Jean/Warren-bullshit.)

I’m not sure what my favorite thing is here: the absolutely bonkers everybody’s-elated-panel (special mention to Kurt’s boots and his bounce) or the subtle character beat where Kurt goes all heart-of-the-team and checks on Scott, who turns out to be not so stoic. (X-Men 101)

Charles orders all the X-Men (except Scott) to go on vacation, so he can take care of Jean. Like, Charles, you’d think they could just go hang out at the X-Mansion. Instead, they go to Ireland because Sean has conveniently inherited the ancestral Cassidy Keep.

All the X-Men dress up fancy for a welcoming feast, and it seems Kurt and Ororo are flirting? But sometimes, it also seems like Ororo and Piotr are flirting? Listen, I’m not judging: I love these polycule vibes from the early X-Men. Especially because neither Kurt nor Ororo have had particularly satisfying romantic plotlines for the past 20 years.

I’m not here to insinuate nothing, but last time I said “I enjoy being with both of you”, it ended up in a spitroast. (X-Men 101)

The soiree is interrupted by… THE JUGGERNAUT, BITCH, and Black Tom, Sean Cassidy’s evil cousin. They are hired by an unknown someone to kill the X-Men! Since nobody subtle is involved, they quickly wreck the castle and everybody tumbles into the dungeons. (Local news paper reports: gay power couple harasses ill-dressed American tourists.)

This story is mostly a vehicle to tells Ororo’s backstory: Storm, one of the few who could conceivably put up a fight to Cain Marko, feels caged by the cold rocks of Cassidy Keep and is incapacitated by her claustrophobia.

Back in the USA, Charles, who’s heard Storm’s mental anguish, is furious with Scott because he doesn’t hop in a plane to save the other X-Men, even though Scott correctly points out that he’ll never get there in time if he leaves now. Meanwhile, Jean awakens, convinced she somehow brought herself back to life. Yeah, you go girl.

While the rest of the X-Men fight the evil duo in Ireland, Claremont tells Storm’s backstory in a few gorgeous spreads.

“I could write a novel about Storm’s backstory.” “You get two pages.” “Deal.” (X-Men 102)

Another classic comics trope appears here, where family members are immune to one another’s powers. I have no idea how Black Tom is immune to Banshee’s sonic scream - he has ears.

Does Black Tom just have a voice in his ears going NEENER NEENER NEENER when Sean screams? (X-Men 102)

When Storm finally pulls herself back together, it’s too late: the Juggernaut has pummeled the other X-Men into a paste and she also falls to his onslaught. IS THIS THE END OF THE X-MEN?!

Other things introduced this year:

Kurt’s image inducer, which he abuses to look like Errol Flynn. (I would abuse it to look like an amalgam of Milo Ventimiglia (ca. Gilmore Girls) and Timothée Chardonnay. OR like Emmy Raver-Lampman.)

The fastball special!

All kinds of name confusion: Lorna is Polaris, Havok is sometimes Havoc and Piotr becomes Peter.

Best new character: Phoenix. Hit me with that iconic shit.

What to read: The Stephen Lang arc is not fully necessary, just read issue 100 and 101. Don’t skip issue 102 if you want to know all about Storm’s past.

[raposarealm]

mitsune for the character thing?

Of course!!

Also warning, this one's gonna have some Arc 2/Dependence Blue spoilers!

Why I like them

Relatable, relatable, relatable! She's a hikkikomori with an ego complex! But seriously: the fact that she tries to mentally balance the desire for the attention and recognition she never gets, with the desire to be truly altruistic and help people in need is very understandable. When the brainwashing-like effect of her magic wears off of her, and she realizes how much she's been tricked into causing damage by Himena and gang playing off her 'heroism' act, she legitimately breaks back down into the introverted shell she was before. We haven't seen much past that, what with the hospital escape happening in the recent Chapter 9, but I'm sure the writers will have fun with that cognitive dissonance.

Plus, her unique magic is a very fun contrast to her personality. Why I don’t:

Leet speak in verbal communication is way too stupid for even Mitsune, you guys. Also, I'm torn on her outfit. Favorite episode (scene if movie):

The Chapter 9 hospital discussion and subsequent escape with Shigure and Hagumu. Favorite season/movie:

...Arc 2? Favorite line:

Y'all, I'll be real, I'm really bad at remembering quotes. Favorite outfit:

Her normal wear, 'cause her hoodie is adorable. OTP:

JunMitsu, I suppose? I never really think about shipping them per se, but I love them as a pair anyways. Brotp:

Also Jun/Mitsune, and the new possibility of Mitsune/Shigure/Hagumu, maybe? Head Canon:

None yet, sadly. Unpopular opinion:

Again, the 'spoken leet speak' is silly, even for as big of an online geek as Mitsune. A wish:

Let her gain the courage (and physical ability) to stand against Himena, and let her call Himena out for the manipulation she put Mitsune through. An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen:

As much as I want her to reunite with Jun, I don't want that to be at the pearly gates, yeah? 5 words to best describe them:

"Lonely", "Desperate", "Sarcastic", "Moral", "Geeky" My nickname for them:

Mitsu?

[agl03]

There is a post I saw about the season in levels or 'comfort'. I came into the fandom late and started following you in Season 6 so was curious how you would rank the seasons from your Mom perspective.

Hi Anon,

I saw that post, love it. I wasn't on Tumblr for Seasons 1&2 so those are out of contention.

The ask thing really got going Mid Season 3.

But for me going Mom had a Migraine to Mom was in sunshine and rainbow land.

Season 4:

Dear goodness this season was a lot. First there was the whole meltdown over where in the Hades were the promo pics because the Promo dudes held onto those until the last possible second. Then we found out Ghost Rider was coming and for as much as we love Robbie now...then not so much. The frustration that all the promo stuff was Ghost Rider was driving many in the fandom batty when we wanted to know about the now together Fitzsimmons, Daisy on the Run, and what do you mean Coulson Stepped Down.

The whole LMD Arc was this crazy waiting game for the other shoe to drop and if Dadcliffe was a thing. RIP Dadcliffe.

Then...there was self control. RIP my ask box.

Thankfully I was at Wondercon for the airing of What if but again, RIP my ask box.

The entire Framwork arc was basically "When will it be over?!" ending with SPACE?!?!?!?!?!?!

Season 5

This was a close with Season 4 in terms of mentally doing a number on me and the nature of the asks I got.

A good chunk of hiatus was knowing that Iain had been filming Overlord and not knowing when he would be back (oh season 7 we had no idea).

Again I was lucky enough to see the premiere at Wondercon so I got a jump on those asks.

There was a really fun time in this season with asks around the Fitzsimmons engagement and dying on the 100th wedding hill. I had a nice fort for that one.

Around the 100th the Drama started with um certain people on a certain social media platform feeling that the 100th was going to go a certain way and was very vocal and um firm about it. That drama didn't let up as the season progressed and continues to rear its ugly head to this day.

Then 5.14....I was at Wondercon when this bad boy aired and wasn't able to answer asks as my ask box literally imploded as I sat waiting for the AOS panel. It was the first time I had to basically consolodate the hundreds of asks that came in. Those who were with me at Wondercon saw my ask box and it was hard not being able to do what I called my "its going to be okay" posts when it was needed.

As we navigated after 5.14 the stress of renewal also was raging.

The day 5.22 aired I had a family emergency. I was in the hospital all day and had "Fitz had died" spoiled because my DM's and ask box also imploded as the writers did the unthinkable. So as I tried to deal with the family emergency that left me an emotional mess I was also lacking the comfort of my comfort show, instead it was just everyone upset as we tried to work through it and it took me a few days to get my feet under my theory wise.

That didn't really let up until we started getting bits and pieces from Season 6 and I was able to get the theories together.

Season 3

Pretty chill here as I started mostly fielding questions about Fitzsimmons. Then my theories started to hit and the AOS promo dudes were mean and did that whole awful Fallen Agent campaign.

That had everyone upset because they teased the death of everyone's favorite character at some point. And we knew someone was going to die most of the B half of the Season so that was lurking as well.

**Had I been Unofficial Fandom Mom when 3.05 aired my ask box would have been an absolute crater**

Season 7

"WHERE IS FITZ?!" Number one ask of all time.

Secret Child hitting was a high point.

So much fun speculating during that insanely long hiatus.

Season 6

This season was pretty chill for me. The deaths weren't surprising (outside of Davis and oof there), I mean we all knew Keller was toast from the second we met him.

And as the Season 6 story played out and we got the epic masterpiece of Inescapable the sting of Maurader Fitz's death wore off.

Binge wise I find that I easily binge Season 6 and 7. Season 5 I tend to do 5-12 quite a bit with 17/18. Then cherry pick favorites from the other seasons.

[wu-sisyphus-gang]

Motion Sickness Chapter 69

This arc. Arc four is the shortest arc. But it blurs a little bit into three and five so depending on how you want to cut it, it isn’t. But it probably is the shortest. It’s also my favorite I think. Of the arcs I’ve written so far.

pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq pq

(Ruby PoV)

I brushed a comb through my hair. I wanted to look at least decent for when I saw Jaune again. What? Just because I could bullseye you from a thousand yards doesn't mean I didn't like girly stuff. One of those things was looking nice for my boyfriend when I visited him in a military psychiatric hospital.

I grinned wolfishly at the mirror. I didn't have a lot of hair to comb through like Yang or Weiss but I had enough to drag a brush through and make it look a bit neater. Speaking of Weiss, she came by and leaned at the corner of the wall in the bathroom. Her hair was still down and not up in its braided ponytail. I turned away from the mirror to actually look at her.

"What?" She asked. She looked beautiful with her hair down but she probably wasn't planning on coming to see Jaune like that. It just wasn't in the cards for her.

"You're not coming with me to see Jaune?" I shot back.

"He likes you, remember?"

"He liked you first," I retorted. "All freshman year, remember?"

She sighed. "I don't want to overwhelm him. He's probably going through a lot as it is. He doesn't need whatever is going on with me to add to that." She waved a hand at herself.

"That you like him," I cut through.

"Yes, Ruby. That I like him." She sounded a touch exasperated.

"Don't you want to tell him how you feel?" I asked.

"I-I suppose..."

"Come on. Let me do your hair." I guided her in and sat her down by the bath and ran my fingers against her scalp. She sighed back into my touch and I let a grin stretch my face. I started to do up her enormous plait.

"It's just so confusing."

"No it's not," I said. "The only thing left to see is if you like him back. And you flirted with him occasionally in Mistral."

"In Mistral…" she repeated. "I just don't want to confuse him."

"But what if you don't have the chance to tell him how you feel again. Think about how stressed you were before you told me how you felt."

"Ruby…"

"You don't want to let this opportunity slide by, even if he's stressed out it's not like having you like him will make things worse."

"Easy enough for you to say. You've already slept with him. And I've already kissed you. It's fairly clear we both like you while it's not so clear that he and I would work out."

"I've just slept with him three times."

"Just three times you say. Forgive me. I didn't mean to blow it out of proportion," she said sarcastically.

I kissed her on the lips with a bit of passion before I went back to doing her braid. "It'll be alright."

"And you're okay with all this? Sharing him? Sharing me?"

"Of course." I was raised by Yang and my dad so maybe my view of love was more relaxed than Weiss's. She was raised up here in Atlas where things were more strict. To me, love was love. It was about sharing and being shared. Nothing about this was crazy to me. I liked what I liked what I liked. And I wanted it, too. "You're alright with sharing me with him."

"W-well yes," she agreed.

"Then don't worry about it. You're stressing way too much."

"But what if he says no."

"Why would he say no? He flirted back with you in Mistral if what you told me is true. He had a crush on you first. Even before all that business with Pyrrha happened. So why would he say ‘no?’"

"What if he wants to be monogamous with you. What if he's not poly." Weiss came out and said it. The big humdinger.

"Then why would he have flirted with you in Mistral?" I countered. And I didn’t really blame him for it if he did. I wasn’t mad.

She sat in silence while I did her plait. I bobby pinned it up as I worked my hands through her long beautiful hair. I squealed a little and wanted to squeeze my face into the silky mass.

"We just need to be open with him. He'll understand. I'm fairly certain he won't be upset that another beautiful girl loves him. He'll probably just be like 'I hate myself and I don't deserve it.' He's like that a bit. We just need to shut that down."

"You've thought about this a lot," she accused.

"Not really," I responded. "That's just how he is, he loathes himself, sometimes. And it's how we could be. All together. I love you Weiss. And I love him. What's wrong with that? What's complicated about that?"

"It's just a whole person to be added to the mix. And you weren't ready before."

"But I promised you I would be ready eventually."

"And that's now?"

"Yes. I'm fairly fast, in case you haven't noticed. It helps that I have him back. I was worried about him. He was alone stewing in whatever happened to him for real. He was off dealing with Salem's mind control by himself, even if we didn't know about it yet. But that's over now. We're going to keep him safe, you and me."

"You make it sound so easy. It's not. It's three people. All with their own desires. That's about as complicated as it gets. Plus you have no idea how to help with the mind control piece."

"You're stressing about nothing until we talk to him."

"It has been a long time…"

"Just a month or so," I returned. "That's less time than you spent with him in Mistral."

"You're too excited for this."

"Why wouldn't I be excited? I get to be with both my best friends."

"If he likes me back," Weiss amended.

"You're still worried about that?"

"It's kind of a big hang up, Ruby."

"He likes you. I promise. What's not to like about you?"

"I'm uptight. I worry too much. I'm an overthinker."

"Now you sound like Jaune did before he admitted we were a couple. Maybe I've got a type." I sighed.

"Jaune and I aren't that similar," she protested. "That's kind of what I'm worried about."

"You're both overthinkers. You're both super smart," I disagreed. "You have more in common than you think, Weiss. I think so, at least."

"Really? I always thought he was a bit like you, Ruby."

"Impatient?" I asked.

"Energetic and a touch clumsy," she corrected, a small smile quirking her pink lips.

"Huh," was all I could manage. We sat in relative quiet as I worked for a moment. She hummed back into my touch. She had a lovely singing voice. I could stand to hear it more.

"And now that he's got that real confidence and honesty behind him I always thought he was… well, you know."

"Hot?" I asked. He was a little.

"You see it too, then."

"You should just wait until he kisses you. Now that's hot."

I watched Weiss rub her legs together a little. "And you're alright with that? You'd be onboard with me kissing him."

"For the hundredth time, yes!" I wanted to shake some sense into her. They were both my best friends. I wanted to share them. "It's not so complicated. It's just one more person, like you keep saying."

To be honest the thought of watching Weiss and Jaune kiss was about the hottest thing I'd thought of in a bit. It made me shudder a little.

"We should see how he is first. He might not be in the best place mentally for it."

"But when he's ready we'll snatch him up, you and me."

She wrapped a hand over my neck and turned me to kiss her. Her tongue dove forward a little and I let it into my mouth. I moaned into the kiss. It felt like everything was going to be okay. For the first time in a long time I really felt it.

"Weiss…" I whimpered. "I need to finish your braid…"

"What's the hold up?" She whispered against my lips. "Are you distracted?" She teased me.

I whined a little and clenched at her hair with both hands. She groaned a little as I pulled gently on her platinum threads.

"Maybe a little." I confessed, desperately. "Let me finish!"

She turned back away from me with her face pink. She was breathing hard enough to make her chest heave. For all my sister's teasing about Weiss's modest chest size, I liked it. Her breasts swelled up at me as she panted from our long kiss.

She was only in her morning wear so I thought I could see the tips of her breasts hardened in the early yellow light. I was no better with my heart beating fast, hammering away in my chest at my ribs. The way she made me whine was enormously domineering.

It was so unbelievably attractive.

I desperately tried to remember where my fingers were and finish up her braid. My hands were trembling more than a little. I slowly got my breathing back under control. My face was as red as my cape in the mirror.

It took a moment to get myself under my own command but eventually I succeeded.

A knock came by the open door. I turned to see my older sister. "Yang?" I asked. I put the last tie in Weiss's plait. "Are you coming to see Jaune too?"

"Yeah, Blake and I both are. I talked her into it. Jaune turned himself and the relic in. That counts for something."

"Thank you Yang." Weiss tucked her hair behind her shoulder and stood up. "I was worried that this would divide us."

"Yeah well it still might," Yang said. "Jaune is a criminal now. Plus he was working with Neapolitan. He better have a good reason for that. For both those things. Let's be honest, I want Jaune on our side, his power and strength are awesome, but I don't know if I can trust him. Especially with the mind control stuff."

I sighed and nodded. I was grateful for Yang coming at us honestly. I was willing to bet the reason was good enough for Jaune, but would Yang agree? I wasn't sure.

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Jaune looked good. Tall with little blue diamond piercings like his eyes. His hair was done up in a spiky messy fashion that made him look dashing. His armor was under black clothes and he had a touch of red where Pyrrha's sash was tied to his arm and he had this little half cape to him too that made his silhouette look slick.

None of the others had brought up his outfit change. It hadn't been as important as other topics but it was there and Jaune looked good-enough-to-eat in his git-up. And if I had it my way I would.

He sat down with us just at a table within the hospital behind double locked doors like an airlock. Someone would have to let us out and the double doors ensured that none of the patients could escape, should they try.

"Ruby, Weiss, Blake, Yang." He nodded with a charming smile. "It's good to see you again."

"Jaune." I embraced him deeply. His wide frame wrapped me up easily. I inhaled his familiar smell wildly. Crisp spice and something else, something torched.

I had missed him. It dragged tears from my eyes which I wiped away.

"How are they treating you in here?" Weiss asked.

Jaune waggled a hand. "Eh. About as good as I could reasonably expect considering the liability I constitute. If I meant business, I'm not sure that those doors could stop me."

He'd probably been analyzing the exits. It was instinct for a hunter like him. He was trapped and he knew it. But he was trapped by his own code as much or more so than the actual doors.

"Jaune you have to tell us everything. What happened to you?" I asked. "What happened at Haven?"

"I killed Ren and Nora. Salem made me do it but I still killed them," he confessed. "She then called me to bring the relic to her. I… I know where she is. At all times. It's like an instinct. I can feel her."

"Are they giving you medication for that?" Weiss asked.

"They're trying to bring my psychosis under control. They have no idea how to deal with the Salem stuff."

"But they're related. Salem's causing it," Blake said.

"That's right. I'm skeptical about any treatment they give me. They're giving me all kinds of sedatives to relax me and they've got me on antipsychotics." He leaned back in his seat and kept one arm around me. "Propanalol and Clonazepam to help relax and then something called Asenapine for the delusions and hallucinations."

"Is it working?" Yang asked.

He shook his head. "It's too early to tell."

"But you don't think it will." Blake murmured. "You think what Salem's doing to you can't be cured."

"Right. I'm being mind raped." He had a lazy half smile. He looked consigned.

I flinched a little. And Weiss shuffled slightly in her blue and silver outfit. She rubbed one arm with the other.

"You're not being mind raped." I said. "Right?"

"She sends me nightmares and I have to deal with her hallucinations. She's attacking me all the time. She wants the relic and Ozpin dead again. She’s my head all the time like ‘do it. Kill them. Bring it to me.’ That sort of ominous bullshit. You can only say ‘no’ so many times and so many ways. It's… it's a lot to deal with."

"But you're fighting. You can resist her," Yang said.

"I'm not sure. If I hear her voice again for real I'm afraid I'll have to obey her. That's what happened last time."

"But so long as you don't hear her real voice you're alright. You're safe." I tried to confirm.

"Maybe. It's a struggle to not give in to her whispers. I hear it all the time."

"You said that you were using Marijuana to help with that. Are you still?" Weiss asked.

"They took that away from me. I'm lucky I'm in a hospital and not behind bars."

"You attacked Atlas. Set some prisoners lose when you were Cloud Strife." Yang murmured. "Burned down a building and did worse besides."

"I was working for an information broker in the city. I was looking for the maiden here. I found out that your sister, Weiss, visits the same bunker every day. Ever since Beacon fell. I'm betting the maiden is there, Tyrian brought her up before I killed him."

"She is," Weiss breathed. Blake nudged her. "What? He already knew."

"These are the kinds of secrets we can't share with him just yet. He's a liability," Blake hissed.

"You said Cloud Strife. Is that your alter ego?" I asked. "Would you rather we call you that? It's a pretty name."

"Maybe. Jaune Arc was given to me by Salem or Merlot. I'm really not attached to it. Kind of disgusted by it to be honest."

"We'll support you. Whatever you decide."

"Thank you. And Cloud does have a nice ring to it, let's roll with that," he smiled.

"You were also working with Neapolitan. She attacked me. She tried to kill me," Yang said.

"She wanted revenge against Cinder and I happened to run into her. Our agendas aligned and her powers are useful," Cloud shrugged. "I won't lie, she's a bit of a monster. But then so am I."

"You're not a monster," Weiss murmured.

"No?" He asked. "I've killed people. I've tortured people."

"I've tortured people, well a person," Weiss said. "You're not alone in that."

"And I've killed people. Lots of them." Blake muttered.

"I was made in a laboratory out of Salem's cells by a mad man. Pretty sure I qualify. You should have seen my father's other experiments. I found where I was born, this incubator. Did you know that I'm only four years old? Because I didn't. He grew me until I was almost an adult and then sold me back to Salem then she had me sneak into Beacon. All of my dreams, all of it was fake."

"But you had memories. Remember Shion? Remember your sisters?" I asked.

"Fake," he sighed. "Or wrong. Incomplete. My sisters though are somewhere out there. I couldn't find any notes on them in Merlot's laboratory but Salem mentioned them in Haven. She has my sisters, whoever they really are. I ran into their creator at this other laboratory, this man with a mustache."

"We ran into a group of girls. They were younger than you but their powers were like yours a little," Blake said. "They all had blue eyes and blonde hair. They were after the relic and attacked us in Argus. Could they have been your sisters?"

"Maybe. It's possible. I might recognize them if I saw them. Mother gave me a lot of memories, not all of them were outright wrong, some were merely half-true."

"Mother?" Yang asked.

"Salem. I meant Salem. Damnit." He hit the table with a fist.  I flinched back a little from the loud noise. He seemed oblivious to it. Running a palm through his spiky hair.

"How long are they keeping you here?" I asked.

"Well they did call it a three day hold. And mental patient or not it's nice to be held," he smiled a little. He rubbed his face with his hands. Hard. "Ah. They've got my weapon somewhere. I'd rather you all had it."

"We've got Ren and Nora's weapons, do you want them?" Weiss asked.

"No. Gods no. I don't. I don't deserve them. What did you do with their bodies, if I can ask?"

"We had them cremated." Weiss reached out and took his hand with one of hers. She rubbed gently over the back of his fingers.

He nodded. He was crying a little. "Thanks. For the best, that." He wiped his face again. His cheeks were turning red from it. He wasn't a handsome crier.

I looked over at Yang. She bit her lip and looked away from me. I don't think she felt any anger towards Jaune, or Cloud, rather. I don't think she felt anything other than sorry for him. Blake was rubbing the back of her neck and was gazing at the ground. Her stare had a thousand yards to it.  

I reached over and grabbed Weiss's other hand and she gave me a measured glance. She wasn't sure now was the time. I'd respect that if that was what she wanted. I just didn't want her to regret it.

"Blake, we should go…" Yang was watching us. "Unless you have any more questions for-um Cloud." She fumbled slightly towards the end.

"You don't have magic, do you?" Blake asked.

"Not past my semblance and a bit of dust I've been practicing with. Not that I know of, I should say."

"Then I think I'm out," Blake said. Yang nodded at her. Blake and Yang departed through the double locked doors of the hospital. That left Cloud and the two of us. "See you later, Cloud."

He nodded to them and looked between us. He inhaled a shaking breath.

"We have something we need to tell you…" I said. "Cloud, Weiss and I are together."

He breathed and nodded along. "I see. You like girls, then."

"Not quite. Neither of us do completely," Weiss murmured.

"I don't understand. I'm a dumbass so whatever it is you'd better spell it out for me," he gave me a brave smile. It was weak underneath. He was scared.

"Cloud…" I mumbled. I rather liked it. It was a good name. It was his own and not Salem's. I thought it was an encouraging sign of his independence. A rose by any other name smells just as sweet anyways. "I love Weiss. And I also love you."

"You dumb blonde, you're not stupid." Weiss said to him fondly. "I'm well- I love you too." Weiss finished. "And I love Ruby. I'm not sure if you're poly or open to that…"

"I don't want to lose you," I told him while I held his hand. I let some tears flow. " But I need Weiss as well. I can't do it without her behind me.  So will you give the three of us a try? When you left we kissed and I realized how much I wanted her. I... I need you too though. I told you that at the Golden Saucer. I meant it. I can't choose. Please don't make me choose. "

Cloud leaned back and exhaled. "My heart… from what you started with I thought it was going to be bad news…" he still looked almost scared.

"I take it that this isn't bad news?" Weiss asked. "Don't tell me you're afraid of our wants." She laughed a little but she was desperately watching his face. She wanted to know. She wanted to know what he felt. I did too, but I was less scared.

"No. Its-its fine. I'm open. I'm willing to try, just wait for me to get out of here. Alright? We'll be able to talk more."

"You think they'll let you out and not put you in prison?" I wondered.

"No way. They'll want me out in the field. The things I can do... They'd be foolish to put me away. And no prison could hold me anyways." He smiled weakly at us.

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-WG

[blakegallo]

13. least favorite storyline?

13. least favorite storyline?

mayhaps this has come up in previous 911 ask meme's i've done... so i'm not sure how fresh this take is going to be if you've been following me. but i think that nothing really compares to the loathing that i've slowly cultivated for most of the storylines they've given one edmundo diaz... which sounds dramatic, and that was intentional, but i phrased it that way because i think that his solo storylines highlight the flaws of the show to never actually dig deep into the storylines that they want to attempt to explore and why in s5 i've found so much of the theorycrafting that happens in the fandom to not be fun to read?

i think that a lot of people agree that s1 + s2 have a different feel, and i guess i would mostly agree after my rewatch of those two seasons, but i think that the decision they made to kill of shannon diaz instead of having eddie learning to coparent with her told me everything that i really needed to know about the writers intentions? i also think that it's been very clear over the years how they have refused to unpack that trauma despite it coming up a couple of times in his talks with bobby. i also think that those talks with bobby expose a lot about eddie as a character that people ignore? like the show makes it clear that bobby is the person that eddie allows himself to be vulnerable around because they have that same grief of losing a spouse and struggling to move on from it, which is why i feel so robbed of a proper scene between the two of them in wrapped in red because it would have been so good. i can just sense it. give me the fix it fic about that.

even beyond that i think it's played into the lackluster storyline they tried to give him with ana and how none of that arc made any sense. i will never get over how eddie was the driving force for that relationship accelerating at the way that it did and then the writers acting like he was pushed into something he didn't ask for and the complete lack of self reflection. what makes it worse is that relationship was so parallled to the eddie that we saw in the flashback eddie begins to the point that the actions made even less sense.

i also just think it was stupid for a show that is never going to kill off a main character to have eddie get shot and talk about his will. the more times i've rewatched those sequences when making gifs the more i have come to see the pattern in the way that eddie and buck have these heartfelt moments. which is why i said earlier that bobby is the person that eddie is vulnerable around bc that scene in the hospital bed is eddie certainly more vulnerable than compared against the post fight club dinner scene but about on par with the post tsunami scene is the exact way that eddie would talk to buck about the trauma... it's also made the "buck is christopher's other dad" trope run FUCKING WILD in this fandom and nothing grates on my nerves more than having to read those takes bc that is not at all what that scene implied. buck is nothing more than a godparent, if you want buck to be christopher's dad eddie has to die, or be in a coma. [ i mean, or a buddie wedding... but i'm talking strictly about what the will actually says ]

which has all culminated in the wrapped in red cliffhanger which i think is the worst cliffhanger, but potentially better than setting up another near cataclysmic natural disaster in the county of los angeles. i say that only because while i agree with the arguments along the lines of you have to put on your own oxygen mask before helping your child, if s5 showed us anything it was eddie slowly unraveling. first off the clock, but eventually how being in the field was increasingly something that wasn't good for his own mental health long before christmas came and christopher broke the gingerbread house. i do think that eddie taking time away from the 118 under the guise of doing it for christopher is actually good for him. i don't know if i trust the writers to actually have eddie getting the help he so desperately needs or how they are going to write him back into the firehouse in a convincing way and that is also part of the problem..

it even bleeds into a lot of the other serious storylines that are really only buoyed by the talent of the actors they've haired to play them out. their love of making these large swings for storylines they cannot support has never been more clear in how they handled jlh's maternity leave. so while i've talked a lot about eddie and how his arcs haven't worked for me, i do think that whent he show isn't fighting a fire or wacky medical call or giving us athena doing whatever she wants it falls flat for me because the writing just isn't there.

this wound up being a lot longer than i anticipated, so i apologize for the ramble that came out of me.

✨ wee woo show asks ✨

[eleutheramina]

Is Scoopshipping Good Writing? An Extremely Long Text Post

This is partially a response post to criticism of the ship and Jack’s development in the Dark Signers arc, and partially my own analysis of Jack and Carly’s relationship--specifically whether it is congruous with Jack’s Fortune Cup characterization and whether it says anything meaningful besides just invoking the Power of Love. 

Introduction

It’s been over 10 years since 5D’s first aired, which is surreal. I still remember thinking the whole concept was ludicrous at first, but it eventually became my favorite Yugioh series (though I usually ignore the series post-episode 64 and consider the first 64 episodes by themselves). It was really primarily because of these two fools that I started watching in earnest:

I shipped them big time. Even now, I still really adore their relationship. Most of my ships I end up becoming less obsessed with over time, but Jack/Carly continues even to this day to captivate my heart and imagination. 

Recently, though, I’ve been thinking about the question, is their relationship good writing? Especially in how consistent it is with Jack’s characterization in the Fortune Cup arc, and whether or not it works to develop him as a character afterward.

(Of course, my personal stakes in the question is, should I be shipping them? While ships obviously don’t have to be well-written in canon or anything like that for someone to ship them, it’s significant to me because so much of the reason I liked Jack/Carly in the past is because it did feel decent character development, especially in contrast to what came after the Dark Signers arc.)

Why I’m Writing This

This sense of doubt about the writing of their relationship is especially spurred on by this character analysis of Jack:

“A lot of people seem to think that the introduction of Carly and the whole romancey subplot developed Jack as a character and for the better. I could not disagree more. If there's one word I'd associate with Jack prior to his entire development and dignity as a character going down the crapper, I'd have to say it's 'ego'. How did Rex/Jaeger get him to sell out his friends, steal Yusei's stuff and join him? He appealed to Jack's ego. How did he persuade him to stay after his first loss to Yusei? By telling him about the signer and reassuring him, again, that he was special. Overall, Jack just struck me as a very focused and driven character, intent on achieving his own goals on his own. He actively pushed away everyone who tried to get close to him, most obviously Mikage, who is consistently worrying over him but whom he never spares as much as a thought or a kind word for in return. Ever. This egocentric attitude is also, at the risk of over-analyzing, consistent with Red Dragon Archfiend, both in its moving away every defensive obstacle in its way and in its actively destroying any monsters that didn't join it in attacking. I generally don't like going onto this level of symbolism because it so easily devolves into semantic nonsense, but given the parallels here and the similarly fitting effects of Yusei's Stardust, I thought it worth mentioning. This would also lend a bit of further significance to him handing the card over to Yusei before the tournament, not only affirming his egocentric wish to beat Yusei at his strongest (and thus redeem himself for their last duel) but also his rejection of the self-sacrificing/others first mentality that the card represents. His obsession with Red Dragon Archfiend after that duel is also consistent with this interpretation, with Jack pushing himself even harder to prove to himself that his way is correct.

“Overall, I don't object to the notion of Jack learning to be less ego-centric as development, but the way the dark signer arc handled it was beyond contrived and ham-fisted, pushing him into an impromptu romance that was completely inconsistent with egocentric personality thus far and completely glossing over the far more interesting questions of how he'd rebuild his ego after essentially losing his entire self-image as the king in front of everyone. Instead, apparently all he needed was for a crazy lady to abduct him from hospital, blackmail him for the sake of her own career, then give a few lines of generic encouragement and invoke the power of love. From where I'm standing, it was obvious that he was intended to be Yusei's main foil, representing a pragmatic, egocentric worldview to contrast with his idealistic views on bonds and friendship, but equally clear that that idea was quickly scrapped in favor of shipping bait and deifying Yusei.

“Jack Atlus, he deserved a far better closure to his development than Stockholm syndrome.” --Aea (http://neoarkcradle.net/forum/showthread.php?tid=26&pid=735)

Before I get to what I think is actually pretty solid about this analysis, I want to address some points. The idea of Carly being “crazy” is pretty hyperbolic. Calling what she did “abduct[ion]” is just inaccurate--after all, Jack asks her to take him out of the hospital, and he also refuses to return when Mikage and Ushio go to get him. Of course, he tries to leave her place in episode 31, but he also seems to willingly return there at the end of the episode. Because she wasn’t really kidnapping him or holding him at her home against his will, their relationship isn’t Stockholm syndrome.

I do think there’s some validity to the idea of her blackmailing him for her career. She does try to draw attention to him when they’re out in public in episode 31 in order to get him to stick around so that she can get a scoop from him. As comically as it is presented in the episode, that’s nonetheless what she does (and she also tries to leverage his lack of gratitude, too!). But she does ultimately feels remorse for that and resolves to not write any article that would hurt a duelist (even despite the fact that Jack lets her write what she wants about him), which is glossed over in this analysis of Jack.

I also don’t think that the encouragement she gave Jack was super original. Here’s the exact quote (which she says in response to Jack divulging his past to her):

“If you get the picture that much, why don’t you just start your life over again? The old Jack died in that battle with Yusei. Now it’s time for the real Jack Atlas to live. Plus, it’d help you in becoming a real King, right?”

Essentially, she tells him that he can get back up again after his loss and be even better than he was before. Yeah, at face value, it is pretty generic. But I do think that it does speak into a lot of what he was struggling with, at least as it is depicted after his defeat.  Now, whether these are things that make sense for him to struggle with is a different issue that I’ll discuss in a later section.

And finally, I do think that Jack/Carly invokes the power of love trope. At least, Jack invokes it himself when he is talking back to Godwin in episode 63: “No matter how much I deny it, I cannot escape from what’s known as ‘bonds.’ And what helped me understand that was one woman’s love!” I don’t think the power of love is necessarily a bad thing, and I think it makes sense for someone who gave up their bonds from the past to pursue his own goal to be able to be moved and changed by someone genuinely caring for them.

Now, whether or not it was a good decision to have love be the driving force in Jack’s character development during the Dark Signers arc is a different question, which brings me to the points of Aea’s analysis that I find really compelling and want to grapple with.

What I read Aea as primarily saying is that Jack in the Fortune Cup arc is depicted as a highly egocentric person, and that his plotline with Carly in the Dark Signers arc is a) inconsistent with that previous characterization and b) not as interesting as a plotline in which his egocentrism could continue to serve as foil to Yusei’s worldview.

I think a lot of that makes sense. I do think Jack was driven by his ego, and I do think that it might’ve been more interesting if his self-driven worldview were able to be given as much validity as Yusei’s idealistic, others-driven worldview, which is ultimately what is privileged. I can also see how Jack being primarily motivated by saving Carly during the latter half of the DS arc may be incongruous with his egocentrism just 20 or so episodes before.

At the same time, though, I think there are a lot of directions 5D’s could have gone which have the potential to be more interesting than the one it actually went, so rather than wondering about what could have been, it would be more worthwhile to examine Jack/Carly’s plotline and see whether or not it is inconsistent with Jack’s previous characterization, and also to see if it has any merit of its own as far as it develops Jack’s character. 

Particularly, I am going to argue that a) although perhaps not as well executed as it could be, it made sense for Jack’s character to need to change after the Fortune Cup arc, and the way it changes is not incongruous with his previous characterization. Indeed, Jack’s character development in the Dark Signers arc centers around him reconceptualizing what being a King is.

Also, b) Jack and Carly’s relationship ultimately deals with and says interesting things about the idea of being driven by oneself that, rather than totally undermining the mentality that initially drove Jack to abandon his friends to become King, gives it some nuance.

Point A: It made sense for Jack’s character to need to change after the Fortune Cup arc, and the way it changes is not incongruous with his previous characterization. Indeed, Jack’s character development in the Dark Signers arc centers around him reconceptualizing what being a King is.

So throughout the course of one arc, Jack goes from being a man who is motivated primarily by himself and his desires (to the point of being willing to put down others for them), to a man whose main reason for action is someone else’s well being. It does seem like a stark change. Rewatching the Jack/Carly duel, the sheer amount of concern for Carly that Jack shows is pretty astounding.

But I think that it’s understandable for there to need to be a change. For one, the particular reason why Jack lost to Yusei in episode 26 in the first place is because he tried to win using the same strategy as before--he wanted to redeem himself for his first near loss. Clearly there is a need for a change: Jack loses not once but twice to Yusei in the same season, and Yusei also cites Jack’s pride as a King as his reason for his loss.

The drama between Yusei and Jack during the Fortune Cup arc is driven by Jack losing to Yusei and needing to duel and beat him again to redeem himself and prove he’s the better duelist--that he truly deserves the title of King. In episode 6, when Jack realizes he would have lost to Yusei, it’s clear that he’s not driven by how his fans perceive him. While his fans have no idea that he lost, he’s nonetheless still bothered because he, the King, knows. In episode 8, Jack feels like he’s not the King anymore, even though Mikage says he still seems like one. The cheers of his fans sound hollow because he knows he doesn’t deserve them.

Something I find interesting is Jack’s awareness of his counterfeit Kingship revealed through his calling himself a clown. After his initial defeat, Jack asks Mikage if he’s a clown in episode 8, in episode 25 he asks Godwin to release Rally and co as “reward for a clown,” and in episode 31, he also uses the language of a clown when he talks to Carly: “Back then, I gave up everything, and what I gained from it was the path to being a King who continually acts like a clown as he lies about his true identity.”

Because of this, the way I see Jack’s character is that his identity as the King was made counterfeit at almost the very beginning of the series (episode 5). He then spends the entire rest of the Fortune Cup arc trying to regain his original conception of his King identity, only to ultimately fail. From Jack’s own language, I think we’re meant to see this as Jack’s foolishness. While it may have seemed fine for two years, the King identity that he had held onto no longer worked for him. When confronted by someone from his past, his King identity starts to crumble--first he’s defeated not once but twice, then it’s revealed he’s actually from Satellite, etc. In episode 25, he even shows awareness that Godwin baited him with the idea of being a duel king; when Godwin asks if that isn’t what he wanted, Jack says that he wanted to rule as “the King [he] truly desired to be.” Indeed, it’s revealed that he wasn’t even valued by Godwin for himself, but rather as a means of getting to Yusei. It makes sense, then, that his development after his defeat should center around letting go of his original conception of his King identity and discovering something more true.

All of these realizations are those that Jack comes to more or less on his own; Carly even says that Jack already “get[s] the picture.” So I do think it is congruous with Jack’s Fortune Cup characterization for him to need to find a new way of being King in the Dark Signers arc. Hence the need to start over, as Carly suggests. (And which is revisited in episode 37 when Jack talks to Mikage again, episode 59 when Carly does her fortune telling stuff, etc.)

I think it’s because Carly gives him hope after he loses his King identity that she makes such a mark on him and effectively becomes his main motivation in the DS arc. And I mean, Jack in the DS arc is still pretty aloof and pushes others away—he makes it clear to Yusei that he “hasn’t become anyone’s friend” in episode 45, and he really doesn’t rely on anyone else even as he angsts over Carly. No one even knows the identity of the Dark Signer he’s fighting. While Yusei still draws on his friends for strength, we see Jack continue his independent streak. Heck, he even pushes Carly away! (And she honestly probably would have been better off and not have gotten killed if she had just stuck with him, but that’s for another AU...)

An aside - I sometimes read people saying that they think Mikage could have filled the same role Carly did. Maybe, if written differently, she could have. But I think it’s notable that when Jack is angsting about having lost his sense of being a King in episode 8, Mikage is not really able to understand or speak to him in a way that actually meets him where he is. She clearly cares about him, but I think she’s not able to get past the image of the King that she and his fans project on him. I think Carly is able to empathize with his pain more. When Jack calls himself foolish and a clown, Carly doesn’t try to convince him he’s wrong--instead, she says something more like, “Sure, that’s true--but that doesn’t have to still be who you are.”

Point B: Jack and Carly’s relationship ultimately deals with and says interesting things about the idea of being driven by oneself that, rather than totally undermining the mentality that initially drove Jack to abandon his friends to become King, gives it some nuance.

I would argue that this is because Carly’s own character, as well as their relationship in general, deals a lot with themes of selfishness. While not presented as starkly as Jack’s self-drive is, it is obvious that Carly is someone who is self-driven and desires to achieve her goals, not completely unlike Jack. Her first appearance has her going past a swath of reporters to talk to Godwin, and her subsequent interaction with her boss shows that her job is precarious and that the scoops she seeks after are at least in part to keep her job. Like Jack, she came from a lower class background (although “the streets” rather than Satellite), and she doesn’t seem to have any close ties (Angela the reporter might count, but that’s a stretch). And when she goes to talk with Yusei and Dick Pitt after their duel, her concern is not with their wellbeing but about getting information from them for a scoop. “Straight ahead is the only way for me,” is something she repeats, showing that she knows where she wants to go and is determined to get there.

Indeed, Carly would not have met Jack at all if she had not snuck into the hospital trying to learn if he was truly from Satellite. She is someone who is driven primarily by herself, albeit more innocuously than Jack is. This also underlies why she was willing to “blackmail” Jack into going to the amusement park with her. She needs a scoop and is ready to do what it takes to get it.

But, we see how in the same episode, she starts thinking less of herself and more about another--Jack. She thinks, “He’s really hurting inside. And here am I trying to write an article about it. Am I a bad person for that?” She considers what he is going through, rather than just her own needs. When she defends Jack to Angela, she is driven not by her desire to keep Angela from getting her scoop, but a genuine care for Jack. And when she figures out he’s going to the tower to look at Satellite, it’s only by inhabiting his point of view and thinking about what he may want. Yet the question she asks herself--whether or not it’s bad to be writing a scoop about him (after all, it is her job, as Angela points out)--is an important one for her.

As self-driven as Carly is, she realizes she has limits--that is, she would not go as far as to hurt another person to achieve her own goals. Jack, on the other hand, has already done that, putting Rally in peril and taking Yusei’s card in order to get to Neo Domino City and become King.

We see again how Carly can be self-driven when she tries to get closer to Jack after he leaves, and when it is ultimately an illusion of happiness with Jack that causes her to fall back into her Dark Signer persona. Yet even then, it is clear that she does not want to hurt anyone, and Jack repeatedly reiterates this.

This culminates in the conversation she has with Jack before she dies: Carly: I loved cheering people on who tried their hardest like you, Jack. Despite that, because I tried to wish for such selfish happiness, I must’ve been wrong for doing so, huh? Jack: That’s nonsense! Everyone has the right to wish for happiness. If you’re saying that’s a crime, then I’m just as guilty!

Carly says herself that she was motivated by her own desires. Jack, in affirming her desire to obtain happiness, also affirms the ambition that drove him to abandon his friends. However, we see in how Carly is reluctant to hurt others that while it is not bad to want to pursue one’s goals and happiness, it is important to consider the impact on other people. It wasn’t bad for Carly to want to be with Jack, but it would obviously be bad for that to necessitate the deaths of many; it’s not bad for her to want to write a successful story, but it’s bad for her to take advantage of duelists’ like Jack’s pain to tell that story. This allows us to view the Jack in the FC arc in a new light: his desire to escape Satellite and become a King wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t right of him to harm others in order to get there.

Ultimately, Jack and Carly’s relationship is about two people learning how to pursue their happiness and also learning to put each other’s happiness first.